


You Could Be the Only One

by SupremeLeaderRen13



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-01-21 21:24:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 56,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12466220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SupremeLeaderRen13/pseuds/SupremeLeaderRen13
Summary: “There is nothing sacred in your life, Ben Solo.”“Nothing that I can save."Set weeks after the end of The Force Awakens, Rey grapples with her newfound Force bond with Kylo Ren and her deepening distrust of Luke Skywalker. Kylo Ren, still reeling from his defeat on Star Killer base, is determined to test the bounds of this bond, all under the watchful eye of Supreme Leader Snoke.The story begins shortly after Kylo Ren accosts Rey on Ahch-To.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a one-shot request that quickly got out of hand. Call it my wishful dreaming about what I want from The Last Jedi. Let me know your thoughts--the good, the bad, and the ugly. As always, may the Force be with you.  
> You can find the sequel here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/13247109/chapters/30302820

It was his turn to look uncomfortable. “I don’t sleep well,” he said, his expression betraying his youth. A crease appeared between Rey’s brows as she recalled a recent, haunting memory, that same voice—  
“At night, desperate to sleep, you imagine an ocean. I see it…I see the island.” She wondered how many of those nights she had unknowingly spent in the company of the hate-ravaged man in front of her, now leaning heavily on his knees.  
“A lot,” he answered, hearing the unspoken question. He didn’t look up, continuing to rest his forehead on his clasped hands. “I never thought you were real, until that day above Jakku.” Rey felt herself soften, then forced her shield back up once more.  
“The day you murdered those innocents in the sacred village, you mean?” She shifted her weight to her toes, battle stance for a fight that did not come. Ren lifted his head and fixed his dark eyes on hers. The angry scar she’d given him seemed to underline the seriousness of his gaze.  
“Believe me, the swift death I afforded them was far better than the torture they’d have endured as prisoners of the Order. Maybe you think I should have let my Knights have the opportunity, now that you’ve seen what they can do?” Rey recoiled slightly, instinctively. Beasts with no conscience. Ren nodded, almost imperceptibly. “Or maybe you think I should have carried out the sentence? Tapping into the Dark Side makes me brutal; I would have slaughtered them. Much less efficient than blasters, more time for terror, more pain. But you don’t have a taste for that, Scavenger—do you?” He ran a gloved thumb along his scar.   
Rey could hear the truth in his words, and feel his muffled horror behind it. She dropped her shield, moving towards him. “Why, when you know this and feel the pull to the light—“  
“Stop—“  
“—would you continue on here? I can help you, we can go to Luke, I’ll appeal to your mothe—“  
“No.” There was a finality in the statement that made Rey lose her train of thought. “Luke, Han Solo, your family—all of it ends. If my grandfather could not defeat death, we are all lost. Your strength is compulsion, is it not? So is mine, but you know it manifests differently. I can hear voices in other people’s heads, all of them screaming at the loss of loved ones. That pain comes for everyone, Scavenger. I merely choose to harness it and shield myself. Anger is power. You have it.”  
Rey was trembling now, the rain coming down in sheets on both of them. “I don’t.”  
“You do. This is safety for people like us, Rey. Armor yourself in power and fear, or be lost to the rest of it.” Ren holstered his saber and rose to his feet. “I have to go. You know how to find me. Don’t expect our next meeting to be this easy. Supreme Leader wants you very much. I can’t protect you.”  
His eyes searched her face once more before he turned to go. Rey blinked back tears. “There is nothing sacred in your life, Ben Solo.” For a moment she thought she had reached him, thought he would turn around. Instead, he only paused to shift his helmet in his hands.   
“Nothing that I can save,” he said. Putting the helmet on, he allowed himself to be swallowed by the darkness. Rey remained rooted to the spot on the edge of the cliff, rain assaulting her in droves, stinging her wounds. Grief that was not hers encapsulated her, giving way to the anger Kylo Ren had sensed within her. The chasm in her chest, so large and full already—Han falling into the ether, Finn’s broken body in the bacta tank, the family she did not know—now stretched to accommodate one more.  
Ben.


	2. Chapter 2

The trip back from Ahch-To was miserable. Kylo had only operated his TIE Fighter long enough to get it through the light speed jump, switching to autopilot as soon as he was on course. This was not akin to his usual nature—he loved to fly, loved his ship that he had so painstakingly designed. Tonight, though, he had different matters to attend to. He drifted out of the cockpit, slowly shedding his soaked cowl and robes, wincing at the soreness that nested between his shoulder blades. The girl was getting better; he hadn’t been feinting when he sunk into a crouch on the cliff. The wound on his side still plagued him, and he had been winded from the effort of not killing her.  
He drifted into the first of the three cabins on the over-sized ship, glad for the silence of space after all the wind and rain of Ahch-To. Most people preferred to get to a ‘home’ planet, but he didn’t really have one. Most of his memories of home were aboard the Falcon, or in an X-wing with his uncle. While he wouldn’t profess to miss those particular places, he still felt the most at home on a ship. Ships provided isolation, which he reveled in.  
After regaining some warmth in his body in the refresher, he slowly slid back on the bed (one of the only comfortable beds he had (as he’d commissioned the kriffing thing to suit his height). Beside him, his comlink beeped and blinked. Sourly, he fired off a response to the two messages from General Hux, who seemed to think of himself as his caretaker. Yes, he was coming back. No, not dead. No damages. Yes, en route. He loathed the man, but Supreme Leader insisted he was the best of the high-ranking officials, and the First Order did need a figurehead. No one better suited to politics than that pompous ass, Ren thought privately. Still, he did manage to maintain everything well enough that Kylo and his master were able to focus on other pursuits…  
His master would be most displeased that he’d failed to return with the girl again. A sliver of fear snaked up his spine. Snoke was willing to be patient for now—“A willing apprentice is so much easier to mold, don’t you agree, Kylo Ren”—but his mercy was sure to wane soon. He was aware of the bond, and extremely fascinated to see if he could manipulate it to suit him. A small part of his stomach fell, and he clenched his teeth. There was nothing he could do for the girl; he would have her either way. Protection was an illusion; the Supreme Leader saw all.  
There was a small, light tug on the bond. He ignored it, trying to sleep. She pulled again, harder that time, and he swore and shot a question down the bond.  
What?  
Surprised you got out without a fight. Resistance pilots skirting the planet now.  
Ren wasn’t shocked. Did you sound the alarm?  
No. I assume Luke sensed you. I’m hiding, pretending I’m asleep.  
Saber burns make that difficult? He could feel her discomfort.  
A bit. Not as bad as your busted side. Kylo responded with a feeling of irritation, and got back amusement.  
You should have come with me. He’ll come for you, you know.  
Will he really? Rey’s voice in his head was lofty. I’d assumed he’d send you.  
Believe me, if I wanted to take you, I would have.  
But you didn’t. What are you hiding, Ben? More irritation from his end. Another unspoken question that she didn’t voice.  
I want you to come on your own. It would be so much better.  
Better for me, or for your conscience?  
Kylo considered for a moment, staring at his dark ceiling. You. Both.  
I’m sorry for you, Ben Solo. The bond went quiet, leaving Kylo Ren truly alone.


	3. Chapter 3

Despite her late night, Rey managed to rouse herself shortly after dawn, a bit earlier than her usual waking hour. Never mind that this was more due to the self-preserving act of avoiding Luke and less her own prerogative. She was up and moving, albeit slowly. After years of hard work and near starvation on Jakku, her body was sinewy and strong, but lately she had been pushing it past its limits. The saber burn on her arm stung as she unwound the charred armguard and replaced it with new soft grey wrapping. Feeling much like a child, she stuffed the ruined guard under her stone bedframe.  
She stepped lightly, gently closing the wooden door behind her so that it would not screech in the frame. In the hallway, a stray porg waddled by, clucking and cooing to itself in the species’ strange language. “Hello, you,” Rey said with a smile. The tiny avian creature blinked up at her with trusting bulbous eyes and cocked its head. Scooping it up into her arms, she carried it down the hallway of the monastery and into a courtyard filled with dewy morning light.  
“Good morning.” Rey’s heart sank as she turned to find Luke Skywalker leaning against the stone wall. The metallic fingers of his prosthetic limb tapped in a frenetic rhythm, the only physical tell that gave away the frustration she could feel coming off him. She slid onto a stone bench and gulped.  
“Good morning, Master Skywalker.”  
Luke’s fingers continued to dance on the ledge as he peered out toward the sea. “You know, Rey, my sister and I are not on the best terms. She’s not very impressed with me, and I don’t blame her for her for it. So imagine her frustration with me when I have to let her know, oh I don’t know, that in the dead of a rainy night I’ve lost another young person she cares about.”  
He turned to face Rey, disappointment etched in his features. Sometimes she tried to picture the dashing young Jedi who had saved an entire galaxy and starred in all her childhood stories, but she couldn’t reconcile that person with the bitter old man in front of her. Oh, he was as strong in the Force as legend would have it—there was the sort of power radiating from him that didn’t choose just anyone. But underneath that, there was sadness and revulsion, and it manifested on his person.  
“Rey. Where were you?” His blue eyes seemed to go straight through her.  
She shifted her arm behind the porg, unconsciously hiding her injury. “I think you know where I was.” The animal cooed softly as Luke regarded her.  
Luke pressed his palm against his bearded cheek, as though to gather himself before continuing this conversation. “How many?”  
“Just…” She tried to speak quickly, as though she weren’t lying. “Just one stormtrooper scout. He didn’t see me.” There, that sounded reasonable.  
The old master nodded absently, staring above her. “And it just left? Did he not want to climb?” Rey fought the blush creeping up her neck and into her cheeks. The porg chirped again and she glanced down at it, noticing, for the first time, that it had a bad foot. She gently prodded it with her fingers and the bird looked indignant. “Leia called in scouts of our own, Rey. Units that I think you understand the resistance cannot afford to lose.”  
Finally cowed, Rey looked down, shame twisting her insides. “I didn’t mean for it to—“  
“No, of course you didn’t.” Luke rounded on her, the lines in his face more pronounced than ever. “I didn’t want to teach you when you came here, and I still don’t. I can feel the conflict within you, and it’s not just between Dark and Light.” Rey worked hard to breathe evenly, in and out. “It’s your overwhelming need to save people, possibly the most dangerous impulse there is. I had it and you can see where it has brought me.” She surveyed the broken man before her quietly.  
“Don’t bring him here again, Rey. Find a way to keep the shields up in your mind. If you bring him here, I’ll have to end it. Do not make me kill Leia’s son. Han’s son.” Luke turned away from her, again facing the water.  
“That’s why you’re hiding,” she finally said. “Because you’re putting off that inevitability.” Her porg now dozed in her arms, oblivious to the deadly words being thrown around it.  
“It may not be my inevitability, young one.”  
Rey blinked. It took a moment for his words to take hold, and their effect was devastating. She remembered the fury on Starkiller, the small voice in her head: Yes, Rey. Kill him. You want to. Do it! The appeal of murder had been so real at that moment, she’d very nearly done it. And that insidious voice… She had come close to falling that day, closer to Snoke than she’d realized. And Luke still thought she could.  
The cacophony of her emotions was strong enough that she felt Kylo Ren’s awareness peak at the other end of the bond. Suddenly terrified that Luke might sense this thing within her, she made for the door, ignoring Kylo’s muted confusion at these strong emotions.  
Luke called after her. “You can’t save everyone, Rey. Especially not the broken things.” She glanced down in her arms at the maimed, still-sleeping porg. Finally making a decision, she pulled it to her chest and ran, pausing only for a thought.  
Come get me.


	4. Chapter 4

Rey didn’t stop until she came to the very edge of the beach, sinking on to one of the boulders that made up the rocky shoreline. The porg squirmed in her arms and she released it, letting the tiny thing flop onto the salty rocks. It toddled happily, oblivious to Rey’s misery. She watched it play a minute, dusting its feathers with cool damp sand. The alien continued to frolic when she finally heard, not felt, a reply.  
I’ll be there in two hours. You need to be alone, and you need to not make me come get you, Scavenger. I’m not making this trip again without you.  
Rey wondered idly if that was really the best the beefed up TIE fighter could do, drawing in the sand with her toe.   
Without attracting unwelcome attention, yes, came the acid reply. She huffed with frustration and forced the mental shield Luke had taught her to create back up, picturing a gate slamming down behind her eyes. Ren’s presence dulled, as it did when he slept. That would have to do. The porg continued to play around her ankles, clamoring for her attention.  
She picked it up again, holding it close. A list began to form in her head as she finalized a decision, items appearing in her mind’s eye. Alone, away, prepared. She could do this. The only possession she cared to take with her was always on her person, and everything else, she could do without. Chewbacca wasn’t due back with the Falcon until tomorrow—that she did feel a pang at leaving—and Luke stood no chance of catching her once she was on board a ship. She doubted that his ancient Starfighter could even get off the ground, but she’d been surprised before.   
No, she would be long gone before they could begin to hunt for her. One of the caretakers—a small, bipedal alien species—wandered past her on the rocks. Rey tensed as the caretaker turned to face her, a question in its eyes. She gave a forced grin, wondering if the ancient, Force-sensitive nun could feel her impending betrayal. The small wrinkled face never changed expression, and continued on. She sighed.   
Morning had truly broken over the island planet by the time Rey began the trek up the hill. The porg ended up being carried more than it walked, but that was all right. Living here with Luke had been its own kind of loneliness, and the porgs were company. This one seemed to like her more than the others, and she wasn’t in the habit of turning away friends, not anymore. When she reached the top of the hill where she had accosted Kylo Ren the night before, she lowered her shield.  
Irritation and hyper-awareness, white hot, flowed from the opposite end of the bond. She ignored the initial flow of anger, picking out singular thoughts that could help her.  
About time…ten minutes ago…he knows I’m here…MOVE.  
The TIE Silencer appeared and slowly lowered onto the cliff, both wicked, pointed wings aimed opposite of her. A knowledgeable pilot would have called it a quiet ship in any other circumstance, but today it sounded as loud to Rey as an explosion. If she hadn’t made everyone aware of her plans before, she had now, she thought as the wind whipped her hair around her cheeks. Faced with the prospect of boarding, she found that she couldn’t. No…she actually couldn’t, wasn’t even able to turn her head.   
“Let her go, old man.” The voice from behind the modulator dripped with venom, the threat of a serpent strike. Kylo Ren, taut and tense, was slowly approaching Rey, ignited saber crackling menacingly. Instinctively, she tried to grab for her lightsaber, and seethed with silent frustration. Stop, chided the voice in her head. If you keep struggling, he’ll never slacken his grip. Ren was barely three feet from her now. “Last chance.”  
“Are you going to kill me, Ben?” Just behind her, Luke’s voice had more fire than she’d ever heard before. There was a charge in the air, like the static heat before a thunderclap. Against every screaming instinct in her body, Rey worked to calm herself, lower her heart rate—anything to make Luke drop his guard. She had no love for the man, but she absolutely would not stand here while Ren tried to kill him.   
“Consider this mercy,” Ren said, slowly raising his left hand in front of him. Defense, Rey realized, not the usual offense. Ren was more afraid than he was letting on. “The Supreme Leader would very much like to great you himself.”  
Luke laughed. It was a strangled sound. “Why this devotion to the man who manipulated you, Ben? You never did want a master.”  
“I am a master, Skywalker.” Rey heard the danger in the tone that Luke chose to ignore, stepping slightly in front of her.   
Luke snorted. “You are an errand boy, Enforcer. What is it that they call you on the Outer Rim—the Order’s hound?” Ren swung so quickly that Rey tried to jump again. Two sabers, red and green, collided with a screech. The older man’s eyes steeled, and Rey watched in awe as the two began to duel.   
This fight was not like the battles she had engaged in with Kylo Ren. There was none of the frantic desperation and panicked blocking of blows that had comprised her attempts. When Rey had fought, the Force had saved her, anticipating Ren’s strikes before they came, the bond stealing some of his skill for her own. Ren still attacked with the same wild energy, but now it was more refined and sinister. He covered his core more, unwilling to expose himself to his opponent. Skywalker moved fluidly, and Rey realized that this came naturally to him, could feel the Force singing around him.  
Luke’s saber finally found its mark, sliding under the red lightsaber to graze Ren’s collarbone. Rey could smell the burned flesh, and felt the rush of pain through the bond. Ren grunted and Force-pushed Luke away from him in desperation. The resulting impact knocked the old Master from his feet, and Rey regained mobility for a split second.  
It was all she needed. She threw up her shields, stronger than ever before, blocking herself from both Kylo Ren and Luke. Fury grew in her core, mingling with Kylo Ren’s fear, and she drew her saber. The blue blade sang as she released it, and she felt the warm hum of that other thing, the part of herself she didn’t acknowledge. Luke was back on his feet, approaching her cautiously, saber still drawn.  
“Rey. Go back. Call Leia. We’ll go back together. Just please, listen to me and go home.” Luke’s words were a question, but his tone said otherwise. Rey narrowed her eyes.  
Ren’s Force repulse hit her so hard that she thought for a moment her chest had collapsed as she was knocked back on the rocky ledge. The dark warrior rushed Luke savagely, and their fight recommenced. Incensed, Rey threw both her arms wide and forced the two apart. Ren cursed in frustration, retreating slightly to stand beside Rey’s fallen form. She dropped her hold on the two of them, panting. This was impossible, she thought, she didn’t have the stamina to keep up with them.  
Ren had evidently had enough. “Let’s go, scavenger,” he growled through the mask, already tugging on her injured arm. She hissed and drew her arm back to her, cradling it against her stomach. Luke was closer now, still armed. He looked so old there, so angry. She rose slowly, still clutching her lightsaber.  
“Rey.” Luke’s voice was softer, cautious. “Come on. Let’s go. Don’t do this.” Her lips parted, and she was uncomfortably aware of Ren’s closeness.   
“I..”  
Screech!  
Kylo Ren barely got his lightsaber in front of her in time to block the blow that came from Luke’s weapon. Shock was overtaken by rage as she realized what had just happened. He didn’t want to help her, he wanted to keep her, to hurt her, make sure she couldn’t escape. She was, Rey realized, nothing to more Luke Skywalker but a weapon falling into enemy hands. The Dark Side called to her again, and this time she answered. She lashed out with her own weapon, making contact somewhere on Luke’s person, although she never saw where. There was another blinding flash of pain, and she knew no more.


	5. Chapter 5

“This is the TIE 89 Silencer, access code E0483F43087. ETA 1300 hours. Requesting private bay O753 for landing site.” The voice sounded very far away, almost hollow. A muffled reply came over a commscreen speaker. Rey was lying flat on her back in the hull of a ship, struggling to make sense of her surroundings. She sat up and groaned, clutching at her head, which was throbbing in time with her heartbeat. Motion-sensitive lights kicked on as Ren entered the room.  
“Welcome back.” He had dispensed with the helmet once again, and was surveying her with his dark eyes. Rey struggled to push herself into a sitting position. “Maybe not do that just yet,” Ren said. “I may have been overzealous.” Stars danced in her vision.  
“What..did…you do?” Now black spots were overtaking her sight. She reclined again on the cot.  
Kylo looked as though he very much wanted to avoid this subject. “I hit you.”  
“Kriffing hell, with what?” Anger made her head pulsate more.  
“With the hilt of my lightsaber. You were completely out of control and blocking me mentally. I didn’t have many options outside of dismemberment, with which you would have been displeased.” Rey frowned, annoyed with the thought of her own vulnerability. The reason for the blow came back to her.  
“Luke…what happened…” Suddenly she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, remembering the jarring impact after her swing.  
“You injured him, and I stopped you from doing more damage. Maybe you could remember that when you undoubtedly prepare to blame me for whatever goes wrong from here on out.”  
Injured, but not dead. That was something. She shifted onto her side, and something clinked against the metal rails of the cot. Her hands wandered down around her waist and ankles, where she was shackled to the wall behind her resting place. Still slightly confused, she shook her feet and looked at Ren accusingly.  
“You tied me up?”   
Ren did not look remorseful. “You would have too, if you could have seen yourself. I was not risking this entire mission by allowing you to sneak up on me in that state. You could have killed us both.” He tapped a button on his comlink and the binds released her. “Really, do not get up just yet. I don’t have anything that can help you until we get to our destination.”  
“Destination?” Rey’s focus was returning, and with it, the dreadful feeling that she’d made the wrong decision.   
Kylo Ren did not meet her gaze. “We are going, for want of a better word, home. Base, if you will. Very few know that we’re coming, so it should be relatively easy to assimilate you.”   
“Relatively easy?” Ren wouldn’t meet her eyes, but inclined his body towards hers.   
“You’re a wanted Resistance fighter who participated in the destruction of Star Killer base. As monstrous as you think the First Order is, some of those people did have families. As I told you before, nothing makes a person as vicious as the loss of a loved one.” He tapped his comlink again and sighed. “Or their pride. General Hux is not warmly anticipating our arrival.”   
Rey made a scathing noise in the back of her throat. “Just something to keep in mind, Scavenger. You’re going to be grateful for Supreme Leader’s protection after awhile. And mine.”  
The thought of protection stirred another memory in her aching head. “You saved me. Why?” The reflexive swing of his saber to block Luke’s strike, the heat given off by both, his fury that had rushed down the bond between them—she could feel Ren looking at it all in her head.   
He frowned. “My orders were to bring you back unharmed.” Ren headed back to the cockpit, finished with the discussion. “Rest.”  
After a few minutes of his absence, the hull went dark again. Rey replayed the conversation in her head once more.  
You saved me. Why?  
My orders were to bring you back unharmed. A strange, metallic tang had touched the bond. He had been lying when he answered her question, but she had been unable to find the hidden truth. Right now, he was either blocking her or asleep; either way, now was not the time to begin digging. Her hand brushed something soft on the floor and she jumped—  
\--then smiled. He had brought the porg.


	6. Chapter 6

Light years away, General Leia Organa sat upright in bed. She glanced at the time, then shut her eyes and reached out to the Force, certain that she had felt something. It was not unusual for her to have trouble sleeping, but she had finally dispensed with the nightmares. Consequentially, this sudden return to consciousness disturbed her; had someone been in the room?  
Then she felt it again, stronger this time. Leia.  
She was out of bed and on her feet in an instant. Though well into her fifties, Leia had not lost her agility, nor her ability to be ready at a moment’s notice. Still fighting to shove her foot into her standard issue boot, she exited her room quietly and hurried down the hallway. This planet clearly did not believe in a natural sleep/wake cycle, she mused as she hurried along. The world’s lifeblood was gambling, and the sounds of the various cantinas and parties above them were deafening, even in the early morning hour.  
Her gloved fist made contact with the glossy paint of a door, and she rapped it smartly. Impatient with the lack of response, she thudded on the door again. Finally, faint sounds of movement came before the door swung open. Poe Dameron stood before her, heavy-lidded and dazed.   
“General! Whuzzgoinon? Is everything okay?” Dameron was smacking at the panel beside the door, searching for lights and a time. Leia stepped into the room and shut the door.  
“Everything is fine, Poe. I need your help.” The young pilot was fumbling on the floor for his boots, which he attempted to force onto the wrong feet.   
“Anything, General. What’s the plan?” Alerted by their noise, BB-8 rolled up next to her, beeping inquisitively.   
Leia had never been one to beat around the bush. “We’re going to get my brother.” Poe paused in the tying of his laces and looked up at her.  
“Something happened.”  
She nodded pensively. “So it would seem.”  
“What about Rey?” Poe had not known the strange girl well, but they shared a mutual dear friend, and he cared for Finn’s sake.   
Leia shook her head, feeling a million miles away from this planet. BB-8 whirred and rattled in the silence. “I don’t know.”  
“Hey, okay. We’ll go now. You ready to load up?” Leia smiled fondly at the man she had come to see as a surrogate son, so different from the one that had left her this hollow. Still, he didn’t replace what she had lost. Her tiny dark haired baby, so strong with the Force. They had all been so hopeful then.  
This wouldn’t do. Leia tightened her smile and tapped the blaster on her hip. “I’m always ready. Let’s go.” BB-8 lead them out of the room, beeping excitedly. Poe started ahead of her in the hallway, then turned around uncertainly.   
“She’s with Ben, isn’t she?” Leia felt the dull ache that always rested in her chest when she heard her son’s name. So few people remembered him now, but he and Poe were close in age.  
“I think so, yes.”  
Poe nodded. “And that’s why we’re not taking Finn.”  
“Also yes.”  
Poe suddenly looked as old as she felt. “I’m so sorry, General. But I’m going to help you get your brother back, okay? We’ll do this.”  
She nodded. “Of course we will.


	7. Chapter 7

“This is the Tie Silencer, inbound, requesting docking space 0753.”   
“Welcome back, Lord Ren. Request granted.” Kylo rolled his eyes at the cadet’s meek tone and tossed his headset onto the control panel. In the port screen, the Supremacy came into view as the shields were lowered, and with it a sense of dread that usually didn’t present itself until he was within speaking range of Armitage Hux. He lovingly guided his ship into port and could feel the hum of the platform rising to meet it as he stood. Behind him, the hull was still dark.  
The girl still slept, then. Kylo felt an inkling of unease at the thought that she should have woken up by now. She’d been dazed when they’d last talked, but he thought she’d be okay. The automatic lights flickered once and then fully illuminated the hull. On the cot, she girl slept soundly and he was relieved to hear the soft whoosh of air that meant he hadn’t killed her.   
Not yet.  
“Scavenger.” He kicked the wall beside her. On her chest, the weird alien he’d stuffed in her bag on Ach-To blinked sleepily up at him. He glowered at it. It cooed back in response, and he had the distinct feeling he was being scolded for something. The girl still wasn’t awake, and they needed to go. He slid his arms under her and lifted, catching her under her knees and shoulders like a child.   
The ramp hissed as it lowered, and he exited, walking quickly. If he could just get through this without running into—  
“Oh, well done, Lord Ren.” Kylo took a deep breath that sailed back out through gritted teeth. General Hux was standing at the edge of the dock, hands in the pockets of his great coat. A nasty smile played around his thin mouth. “You’ve killed her already. Seeing as that is exactly what you were told not to do, I can’t say that I’m surprised.” The older man glanced down at Rey, then back at Kylo. “You look like hell.”  
Ren’s cheek was bleeding, a bitten casualty of the effort he was making not to kill this man. He swallowed hard against the coppery taste. “Are you going to stand there goading me, or are you going to get me a kriffing—med---droid?” He rolled his shoulders, jostling the girl in his arms. Her head lolled to the side.  
Hux frowned, but barked something into the comlink embedded in his cuff. They crossed into the greater corridor of the ship, which was blissfully empty but for one medical officer and her accompanying Emdee droid. To the woman’s credit, she did a good job of containing her fear at the Enforcer’s appearance, only a slight crease appearing between her light brows. She brought a practiced hand to Rey’s limp wrist.  
“How long has she been like this?”  
“Several hours. Are you a medic?” Kylo examined the woman’s badges with distrust. The Emdee droid hummed in apparent disapproval.  
The woman did not take offense, but cocked an eyebrow. “No. I’m a doctor. Although I’d never underestimate the help of a good medic, which you probably could have used.” She gestured to the cylindrical droid, which rolled up and took the girl from his arms. “I’ll see what I can do. Shall I report to you, General, or—“  
“Everything to me.” The doctor nodded again, hands clasped in front of her in review stance as she appraised him.   
“As you wish, Lord Ren.” She and droid hurried away, taking the scavenger with them. Kylo could see the bird-like alien rustling around in the girl’s robes. Hux turned to him.  
“I hope you don’t plan on dropping this on me. We cannot leave her with regular troopers, obviously.”   
Ren started walking in the opposite direction, purposefully lengthening his stride, knowing that the general hated hurrying to keep up with him. “Obviously.”  
“What would you have me do?”   
Ren gritted his teeth, aggravating the ever-present ache in his jaw. “When they’re done with her, I’ll have them send her to my quarters and I’ll figure it out from there. Kriffing hell, I’ll set up the holding cell again, but it won’t be necessary.”  
Hux rolled his eyes and cocked his head. “And if she recovers in the meantime while you’re explaining yourself?”  
He bowed his head. “If she awakes, I will know. And I’ll come.”   
The corners of Hux’s mouth gave an almost imperceptible twitch. “How interesting that your omnipresence with the girl did not allow you to anticipate your defeat on Star Killer.” Kylo finally stopped his parade and slammed his arm across Hux’s chest, driving the smaller man into the wall.   
“Listen closely, General. Our defeat on Star Killer was the result of your incompetence, not mine. I had one job that day—you’re the one who let them in.” Hux was red-faced and looking daggers at Ren, but his breathing remained even. “So don’t think for a second that you did anything heroic or better than me just because you pulled me from that forsaken planet. You and I both know that you couldn’t go back without me.”  
He released Hux with disgust, pulse thrumming in his ears. The Force swelled around him, visceral energy. The general, still red, managed a laugh. Stars, Kylo hated him.   
“You’re still a boy, Ren. You take no responsibility because it would deprive you of your chance to bounce on daddy’s lap.” They passed through the next set of doors, entering into the next corridor where two red-armored Praetorian guards stood sentinel.   
“Tell me, General, how long was it before your father acknowledged you, a bastard? Perhaps I’m not the one seeking approval.” Hux shot him a look of pure loathing that Kylo was fairly certain mirrored his own expression.  
Hux recovered his sneer. “Ah, don’t crass Ren. I know who you are. And it is only by the Supreme Leader’s grace that the rest of the galaxy doesn’t.” He stepped aside smartly as they approached the doors leading to Snoke’s receiving chamber. “Enjoy it, Solo.”  
***  
“Mama, why are my names backwards?”  
Senator Leia Organa turned away from her desk to smile at the little boy on the bed behind her. He was lying on his back, unruly dark curls askew, kicking his feet at the ceiling. He made a noise each time a foot tapped the air in a staccato beat, a “phew, phew, phew” she could only equate to ship cannons. She caught one of his little feet in her hands, trapping it.   
“What makes you think your names are backwards, brave pilot?” Her son jerked his foot out of her hand and pushed himself into a sitting position. His full lips descended into a very-familiar pout, and he brought his tiny fists to his cheeks.  
“BECAUSE Kayden—he’s a Twi-lek, and he’s OLDER”—here, the boy paused to make sure that his mother understood the enormous importance of the other child’s opinion. Leia widened her brown eyes and nodded at her boy, urging him to continue. “He said that my names are backwards because your dad’s surname is supposed to be last, and I’m backwards, mama.”  
Leia giggled softly. “Oh, silly boy, you’re not backwards. Listen, everyone has a home planet, right? Whole worlds with their own way of doing things. Places like that are very different than here, where there are all kinds of worlds represented on one planet.” Ben nodded.  
“And you know mama had a home planet once, right? But something bad happened in the war and it went away?” Another nod. “On my planet, Alderaan, we had a matriarchal society. That means women were in charge, in a way.”   
Her son wrinkled his nose. “Hey!” Leia tweaked the offending feature. “You are so like your father. But, because of that, when people got married, the men took their wife’s name. Daddy knew that was important to me, so that’s how we made your name. Ben Solo-Organa.”  
Ben finally smiled crookedly. “No one calls daddy that.”   
Leia smirked mischievously back at her son. “That’s because your father is already quite famous by his given name. Well, among certain crowds.” The two giggled conspiratorially.  
He snuggled into her side. “Mama, how come Uncle Luke doesn’t have a name with us?”  
For the first time, Leia’s smile faltered. “He does, little one. Mama was adopted, you know that, right?” Ben nodded again, and she rested her chin on his head. “So mama took a different family name, because that’s who raised her. Does that make sense?”  
“Yes.”  
“We’re Skywalkers, like Uncle Luke, Ben. You’re Ben Solo-Organa-Skywalker. But remember, the last one is a secret. We don’t tell, okay?” Ben nodded solemnly. She was struck by how old he looked just then, a serious, tiny adult by her side.  
“You’re of three very special families, Ben, don’t forget it. All of them love you very much, even if they’re not here with us now.” She hugged him and he wriggled out of her grip.  
“I know, mama! I can feel them! Do you know Grandpa Anakin?”  
***  
“Kylo Ren. An honor.” Supreme Leader Snoke leaned back on his throne, his golden robes shifting around him. “Considering I’d hoped you be back days ago. Dismissed.” The two guards on either side of him filed out silently, leaving student and master quite alone. Kylo approached and dropped to one knee.   
“I’m sorry, master. There was an unforeseen complication.” He forced himself to look calmly at the humanoid figure in front of him, this man who was not a man that had taught him so much. The Supreme Leader seemed to be considering him carefully.  
“You said in your message the girl came with you willingly. Interesting…and she injured Skywalker?”  
“Yes. Badly, actually. I stopped her from doing further damage, because I know you’re still interested in what’s left of him.” He ducked his head again, wincing at his own stupidity.  
Snoke began to laugh, and awful, wrathful noise that belonged in hell. “Oh, this is interesting. You stopped the girl—to help me?” He chuckled again, and Kylo was lifted off his knees as Snoke Force-lifted him into his grasp. He fought the urge to choke, and felt an absurd wave of gratitude that no one was here to witness this.  
“Oh, Kylo Ren, you are my greatest triumph and disappointment. I told you once before that I could feel your compassion for that girl, and here you are, reeking of it again. Though I suppose that is not entirely your fault.” He cast his hand to the side, and Kylo caught himself on his hands and knees as he dropped to the floor.  
He leaned forward earnestly. “I can feel the girl’s fear and her pain, master. It has…”  
“Echoes.” Snoke rested his gnarled hands on the arms of his chair. “Yes, I see. I look forward to meeting this woman, assuming you’ve not injured her beyond use. The lack of control in someone who muddles between light and dark just perplexes me, Kylo Ren. You can go.”  
Kylo rose, slipping his hand into his left pocket as he turned to go. Snoke laughed again. “Congratulations on that too. Don’t disappoint me with it.”  
In his pocket, Kylo squeezed the hilt of Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber. “I won’t, master.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Okay soldier, it’s time to wake up. There you are.”   
Rey’s eyelids fluttered and she struggled to pull the world into focus. A woman in First Order uniform leaned over her, looking grim but satisfied, the bright lights making her skin appear translucent. She ran a reader across Rey’s temple, and studied the screen.   
“Everything looks well. You had a fairly severe concussion, but I think we have repaired the worst of the damage. Can you sit up?” Rey looked at her, confused. “Come on now, girl, sit up.” Still slightly bewildered, Rey pushed herself into a sitting position, noticing as she did so that her burned arm had been repaired. She extended and flexed it, bringing her hand to the back of her head.   
The doctor finally smiled wryly, crossing her arms. “Yes, we fixed that too. Try to keep your brains in your skull, and you might live to an old age.” She gestured to the foot of the bed. “Here are your clothes—well, new ones. And please, take this with you.” A small ball of fluff hit Rey in the chest. “He’s been wreaking havoc in my bay for the last two days.” The porg blinked up at her innocently.  
Rey smiled and clutched at the tiny animal. “Thank you for not getting rid of him.”   
“I’ve had worse things in this ward before, girl, don’t worry.” She leaned in. “General Hux has a cat on this ship. Maybe just keep this…thing out of sight for awhile. Strictly speaking, the only kind of pets that have value to the Order are ones that can eat other creatures or cause damage to enemies.” She straightened as a shadow fell over them.  
“Lord Ren. That was quick. You can take her as soon as she’s ready. My recommendation is to avoid combat and excessive stress for a week or so.” She looked stern again. “Other than that, she should be fine.”  
“Appreciated.” That deep voice spurred Rey to turn towards it as the doctor slipped away. Kylo Ren was standing in the doorway, arms crossed. “You look better.”  
He certainly looked better, Rey thought, much less exhausted than her most recent, fuzzy memory of him. The strikingly familiar face was less hollow, and he had dispensed with the usual layers of outwear. In fact, had it not been for the First Order black, he greatly resembled pictures she had seen of Jedi knights of the old republic, ensconced in the flowing tunic combos they had favored. Less like a monster, more like a man.  
Which provided her all the more reason to be irritated with the pretense. She glared at him. “No thanks to you.”  
Ren was remarkably unabashed. “It wasn’t my intention.” He paused again, feeling her distrust. “Listen, scavenger, I told you before, if I wanted to kill you, I would have.” Rey fought the childish urge to stick out her tongue. “Are you going to get dressed, or make me wait here all evening?”  
Rey cast a disparaging eye towards the end of the bed, where the porg was now trying to nest in the new clothes. She leaned down and lifted the first piece of sturdy material. Kylo took that as consent and stepped outside the doors, which slid quietly shut behind him.  
Getting on her feet was okay, albeit a bit wobbly. She struggled into the clothes, starting to feel the weight of what she’d done envelop her. Thankfully there was no First Order insignia on any of the items—she knew she couldn’t stomach that—but they were well made and she felt better with them on. Snapping a wide belt around her waist, she noted sourly that they were quite similar to Kylo Ren’s, but there was nothing to do for it. Everyone looked like this here, and she need to blend in.   
For now.  
The porg honked when she picked it up and shifted it under her arm. Her left arm. Because on her right…  
Rey burst through the medbay doors.   
“Where. Is. My. Lightsaber?” She glanced at his belt. “You have it, don’t you?” He’d barely had a chance to open his mouth when she sunk her fist deep into his side. “Give it back!” Kylo hissed and grabbed at his weak muscle.  
Someone laughed behind them. “Oh, Ren, if she wasn’t resistance fodder, I’d almost like her.” Rey spun, still seething, to find a redheaded officer grinning at the pair of them. He was older than her, with the sort of good lucks that smacked of core world roots and aristocracy. She disliked him instantly, but that feeling was nothing compared to the rush of loathing that came from the end of the bond. Kylo hated this man, she realized.  
“Who are you?” Behind her, Kylo made a scathing sound.  
“Interesting accent,” said the man, narrowing his eyes. “I’m General Hux. Normally I’d expect salute or deference from someone who is taking advantage of my resources, but watching that was enough.” His left hand closed on his opposite wrist. “Please know that my cabin is also in this section, so if you kill him, do it quietly. Then I can look forward to your execution with a clean conscience.”  
“Funny,” Rey said quietly. “I was under the impression that the First Order had no conscience.”  
Hux frowned deeply. “Keep your pet on a leash, Ren. I’m not responsible for what happens to her when she’s away from you.” He strode away from them, falling into step with two officers in naval grey through the next set of doors.  
Rey watched them go, glowering.   
“Fantastic,” Kylo muttered, starting to walk. “Walk.”   
Rey planted her feet firmly, the new boots stiff. “I asked you a question.”   
“That you already know the answer to. It’s mine, it belonged to my family.” He looked at her almost pleadingly. “Come on.”  
She reluctantly strode alongside him, sending a barrage of thoughts over the bond.  
You have a family, Ben. Take it back to them, if you want it, have it. Just go home.  
We are home. There was a flat finality in the thought, the metallic feel of a lie.  
Your mother— Briefly, an image of a Leia Organa she had never known, a younger one, flashed through her memory. Beautiful and doe-eyed, she smiled down at--   
“Rey.” He spoke aloud this time, and she knew she had crossed a line. “Do not go digging in my head and make me defend myself. I do not want to do that to you again. That was painful for us both last time.” He didn’t have to specify—she remembered every excruciating minute in the holding cell, his pain and terror when she had tunneled into his head.  
And that name, one that was still whispered fearfully across the galaxy…  
Darth Vader.  
Kylo stopped in front of a door and tapped a code into the unit, giving no sign he had been listening to her thoughts. The barrier slid aside to reveal a plain room, equipped with chairs and data screens and not much else. He pointed left. “Mine,” he said. Then he swiveled. “Yours. Touch the panel and it will be programmed to recognize your print and no one else’s.”   
She eyed the door suspiciously. “And what am I to do for a weapon in the meantime? I am not staying here without one.”   
“I think you’ll find everything you need in your room, including an array of blasters for you to choose from. Please do not attempt to use them on any of the personnel onboard. I’ll be obligated to kill you then.”   
She nearly laughed. “Still, not much of a fair fight as far as weapons-class goes.” Her question hung between them.  
He nodded. “We can begin training tomorrow if you feel well and we avoid that doctor. I’ll teach you to make your own lightsaber. That’s how it should be done, anyway.”   
Rey tried to mask her interest. “Okay.” Her rhythm was off, but she knew when the lights in the antechamber dimmed that they were approaching a late hour. “Tomorrow then.”  
Kylo ran two fingers over his scar. “Tomorrow.”


	9. Chapter 9

General Hux stepped casually through the antechamber door shortly after the scavenger girl had gone to bed. Ren was exactly where he knew he would be, sitting at one of the data screens, an old map visible in the suspended hologram. He didn’t turn around, but the dimmer switch moved of its own accord, lightening the room around them.  
“Yes, please do come in, General. You know how your presence thrills me.” The younger man swiveled his chair to face him. Hux had already taken the opposite seat, and was throwing his leather gloves down on the table.   
“So, the girl is still breathing, meaning we can continue with the plan. You confirmed she had the new location of the smaller resistance base, and I intend to send a squadron to wipe it out.” Hux massaged his temples, eyes closed. “You’re sure that they’ll come for the girl? Supreme Leader trusts you.”  
“Yes. They will come for her. You have no idea how important she is to them. I’m not sure that she knows. Skywalker made a fatal mistake in underestimating her, and soon he’ll have to reconcile with that.” Heat flew from the last few words, warning of the temper that he kept so close to the surface.  
“So it’s settled then,” Hux pressed on. “I’ll send the squadron, and you’ll keep your bait here.”  
“Supreme Leader thinks of the girl as more than bait, General. You would do well to do the same. If he finds her to be malleable, she may become one of my knights. Maybe even a future ruler of the universe, although I’m sure a scavenger rubbing shoulders with your stock is an uncomfortable thought.” Ren grinned wolfishly at the thought of Hux’s displeasure.  
Not to be outdone, the general clapped his hands together. “So be it. If she makes Leader Snoke that happy, she can sit on the board. Not everyone expresses your distaste for politics.” He leaned back, just slightly out of Ren’s reach. “Maybe she could be my future empress, although I’m sure she would prefer your brand of guerilla warfare, judging by her background.” He chuckled with his mouth closed as Ren’s head jerked up, eyes flashing dangerously. “Oh dear, Ren. You are in trouble.”  
The boy put up a good show of attempting to relax. “I just think that you have no idea what you’re dealing with here, Hux. This is not a person who is easily swayed. And if you keep rattling her cage…” he turned off the data screen with a touch. “She’ll kill you. Regardless of your grand aspirations. Maybe because of them.” Ren truly smiled, taking years off of his face.  
Hux rose from his chair, slowly sliding on his gloves. “No matter. I don’t look for her to survive very long anyway, between your temper and the Resistance’s utter lack of military strategy. Crossfire principles. The very best of luck, Lord Ren.” He paused at the door, turning back one last time.  
“You’re sure this is a small base? There is no chance they have Skywalker with them?” Both knew that Supreme Leader would be extremely displeased if they accidently annihilated Skywalker before he had a chance to test him.  
“I’m certain Skywalker is not on the base. In fact, I’ve a very good idea of where he will be quite soon. When I have those coordinates, I will let you know.” Hux nodded once, and left Ren sitting alone in the dark, where he stayed for the next quarter hour, matching his breathing in time with the girl who slept in the next room.


	10. Chapter 10

Luke Skywalker had nightmares. Leia could see them in the dim light, the monsters crossing his weathered face and darkening it with growing severity. She didn’t doubt that some of those were her doing—in fact, she knew they were—but it didn’t make her want to help him. On the contrary, she felt some sort of vicious satisfaction that her brother didn’t sleep peacefully. Somehow, that made her years of shouldering this alone a tiny bit better. The same ghosts haunted other people.  
In the interest of being haunted by one less, she reached for her brother’s hand. “Luke.” He didn’t stir from whatever was tormenting him. Leia sighed, reaching out into the Force. “Luke.”  
“Leia?” The once-kind blue eyes flickered open and found her darker ones. “Leia!” He struggled to sit up, and she gently eased him back onto the bed, avoiding his left shoulder.   
“Maybe not just yet, okay? Bacta is still working on it.” Luke glanced down at his shoulder in surprise, prodded the bandaging with two fingers. “It was pretty gruesome, Luke.” She paused, looked down. “Did Ben do this to you?”  
The cushions exuded a soft whump as Luke collapsed back into them. He brought his right hand to his face. “No,” he whispered.   
Leia gripped his hand tightly. “It’s okay, Luke. Tell me, so I can help.”  
“It was Rey.” Shocked silence. “I did this Leia. I didn’t want to teach her…I think that’s understandable? You send me this young girl, just a few years older than Ben was when I lost him, and expect me to welcome her with open arms?”  
Leia dropped his hand. “She risked a lot to get that to you. You have no idea—“  
“No, you have no idea. She didn’t just present that talent on Star Killer, Leia, she took it from your son. They have a Force bond.”  
Blink. A breath. “Like ours?”  
Luke frowned. “Yes and no. Anyone who is Force-sensitive can reach out, in a way. A strong emotion, massive loss of life, a direct call—all of that can be felt. However, from what I have been studying, these bonds are rarer and much more specific.”  
“Is it dangerous?” A mother’s question, she knew. And she was still a mother.  
“Under normal circumstances, no. It can be symbiotic, depending on each person’s strength with the Force. The legends…you should read what can be done with these bonds.” His face fell. “They can hear each other’s thoughts, Leia. I’m pretty sure Ben has been fascinated with it since he took her from Takodana. Which, unfortunately means…”  
“Snoke is now interested.”   
“Yes. I think that Rey and Ben have one of the strongest bonds, an instantaneous one like Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura of old.”  
Leia pressed her hand to her forehead. “And what if Snoke sees that as a threat or vulnerability?”  
Her brother looked haggard. “Breaking a Force bond is incredibly difficult and dangerous. It usually means the death of one or both. If we lose Rey completely to the dark side, I think that’s how Snoke will—“  
“Choose.” Leia stood up, furious. “This is my fault. She’s trying to bring him home. To me. To us. She’s looking for a family, Luke.” She started for the door. “I have to go to him, I can’t—“ One more deep breath to steady herself. “You should have told me. You knew this, and you didn’t tell me. Like so many other things.”  
Luke didn’t respond, turning his head towards the wall. “Where are we?”  
She hesitated.


	11. Chapter 11

Rey was sweating. Standing in the center of the Supremacy’s large training room, she rounded on the opponent to her left, barely getting her practice rod in front of her before the man’s weapon connected with her stomach. Winded, she hunched over, grabbing her knees. This was the second hour of training that she had endured with three First Order officers, and it was only getting harder. The cadet who had hit her laughed. “Are you sure you’ve done this before?” The other two trainers snickered.  
“Of course she has.” All of them straightened automatically as Kylo Ren approached, clearly intimidated by the mystique of the helmet and modulator. Rey frowned, sensing something dangerous in Kylo’s demeanor. “She just has to be afraid for her life.” He deliberated for a moment and selected one of the metal combat wands from the weapons stand. “Let’s see how you do with that same fear—cadet.” The boy’s face paled.  
“Sir?”  
“I said—“ Kylo lifted his hand and Force pushed the boy into the sparring ring—“let’s see how you do.” Shrugging off his cape, Kylo Ren followed the cadet into the ring. Rey glanced at the trainers beside her. Their mouths were set, faces pale. In fact, she thought the younger man on the end might be sick. She stepped slightly to the side, crossing her arms.  
The first few blows weren’t bad. The boy had managed to reclaim his stance before Kylo struck, effectively blocking the first few attacks. Kylo’s strength, Rey knew, was in putting his opponents on constant defense. The timing of the metallic clangs grew closer together as the warrior pressed in on the boy, who was beginning to tire just from defending himself. She gasped a full second before everyone else, anticipating what was coming just before it happened.  
Kylo Ren spun the weapon over his head, momentum blurring the blade. Trained fighters did not expose their core unless they didn’t intend to allow their opponent the chance to strike again, and Rey knew immediately that the boy was in trouble. This revelation, however, did not come quickly enough for the trainer. The flat side of Kylo’s weapon made contact on the top of the cadet’s head with a resounding crack. She cringed and waited for the boy to fall.  
He didn’t. Swaying slightly he brought his weapon up to protect himself from the next assault. Kylo was landing blows repeatedly, but the boy would not concede. Blood dripped slowly from his face onto the floor, and he spat helplessly. The men beside her were horrified, she was disgusted—why would the boy not concede? Any normal person would have already lost consciousness.   
The answer came to her and she was nearly apoplectic with rage. You are keeping him conscious, aren’t you? Stop torturing him. She yanked on the bond.  
I’m not torturing, I’m experimenting. Kylo hit the cadet even harder than before. Blood spattered and he finally made a noise, something both guttural and pathetic. Think of it as the mental equivalent of having a bucket of water thrown on you in a deep sleep. He struck again. I can torture him, if you prefer.  
“Stop it now.” She didn’t remember picking up the staff, or even entering the ring, but she was standing next to the bloody cadet. “That’s enough.”  
Kylo’s face might have been hidden by the mask, but she could feel his amusement through the bond. He lowered the dummy weapon to his side. “As you wish.”  
The cadet began to scream, clutching at his head. Rey launched herself at Kylo, who blocked her easily. That’s better, he thought excitedly. The bond warned her of his incoming strike, and she dodged it, bringing her staff behind his legs hard. Unlike their last fight, this time she wanted to hurt him. The monster inside her sniffed the air hopefully.  
A lesser man would have buckled from the blow, but Ren only staggered a bit. He approached the bleeding cadet once more, and Rey thrust out her hand in desperation. The resulting Force push knocked Kylo into the opposite wall. She turned to the two terrified officers, one of whom had indeed gotten sick.   
“Take him to the medbay NOW. Don’t come back here.” The men didn’t question her order or the authority with which she gave it. They collected their friend as gently as they could and nearly bolted for the exit, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. The doors slid shut.  
She rounded on Kylo, who had gotten to his feet, tossing his helmet to the side. He was smirking.  
“See how much stronger you are when you use that anger? You can actually fight.” He wiped at his brow. “I’ve got plenty more trainers for you to rescue.”  
“You are a beast.” She threw the practice weapon into the stand, causing the entire thing to clatter to the ground. “If that is how you plan on training me, you can tell your master I’m refusing. I hope he makes you kill me.” The Dark Side called to her again, longing to feast on her rage. With effort, she ignored it.   
Kylo had finally stopped smiling. He tugged on the bond between them, appealing to her. “You don’t want that, Scavenger. I’m trying to help you.” Pieces of the weapons stand were still rolling away from them. Stretching out a hand, he called the staff she had just used to his chest. “This is what you need. You’re wild and sloppy with a traditional lightsaber…“ Rey kicked another rouge dummy weapon at him, which he neatly dodged. “…but you could be great with something that you know.”   
Rey tucked a piece of damp hair back into her bottom bun, chewing on her lip. Anger was pressing in on her chest, but the desire to have a lightsaber in her possession was strong. “Can you build it for me?”  
He tilted his head. “I am able. We would have to make a trip.”  
“Great. Get the ship ready, and I will meet you.” She headed for the center doors.  
“We are to stay here until the Supreme Leader deigns to send us elsewhere.”  
“We are to stay here or we have to stay here?” Kylo held her gaze for a beat before turning away from her and muttering into his comm link.  
“I need departure clearance for the TIE Silencer as soon as possible. Approval code…”


	12. Chapter 12

Finn had learned many things from the First Order. He was not an individual, but a part of a greater entity. He could kill a man with a variety of weapons, break necks in hand-to-hand combat, and push through terrible pain. What he could not do, what the Order had not been able to beat into him, was blindly accept that people were telling the truth. He had hoped to never encounter lying “for the greater good” again, but it seemed that no one could resist.  
Such as the unusually grave pilot sitting in front of him. Poe Dameron looked tired, as though he’d been awake since he left for his mission with General Organa a week ago. Even BB-8 seemed lackluster, his tiny head lolling to the side of his body sphere. As of five minutes before, Finn would have trusted the man and the small droid beside him with his life. Now Poe wouldn’t look at him.  
“You’re lying to me, Poe. Please don’t.” Dameron put a hand over his mouth, rubbing at the stubble there. “Where is Rey?”  
“I told you. Another mission, something we’re not supposed to talk—“  
“Chewbacca came back, Poe. The Falcon is here. So please, don’t do this. Be my friend and tell me what happened.” Finn leaned up out of his bed and gripped Poe’s forearm. “Everyone knows something has happened, I hear rumors…”  
Poe wet his lips, as though buying time to find a way out. Then the story burst out of him, as though it had been eating him alive for a week.  
“I had to take General Organa to get Luke. Skywalker.”  
Finn gaped at him. “You actually met—“  
“He was unconscious, so not much in the way of actual introduction.” He smiled weakly. “Some hero meeting, huh?”  
Finn was starting to feel a creeping sense of dread. “Why was he unconscious?”  
Poe crossed his arms, a defensive tell Finn had learned during his interrogation days. “He was injured.”  
“By?”  
“Rey.”  
Finn stared at him, shock and disbelief rendering him momentarily speechless. No. He shook his head, throwing off a sensor. “No.” Another pause. “Why?”  
Poe looked away from him again, and Finn shook his arm roughly in desperation. “Why. Did. She. Hurt. Him?”  
“I guess he made her mad. She was trying to leave, to go with B—Kylo Ren, and Skywalker tried to stop her—“  
“He took her?!” Instantly, he was right back on Takodona, watching that monster carry his friend away, the only person who had ever looked him and didn’t assume he too was a killer. And just like last time, there was nothing he could do.   
“No, Finn, buddy…she went with him. She called him. The General says they’ve got some kind of connection—“  
“Why are you still here?”  
Poe blinked. “What?”  
“Why hasn’t the resistance sent a squadron to get her back? We’re sitting here, cozy, while she’s being tortured and—“  
“Our intel says that she is being treated as an honored guest aboard the Supremacy. They treated her wounds and—all evidence says they’re training here.” Poe was speaking softly, like Finn was a kid on the brink of a tantrum. Not that he’d ever been a child or allowed even an outburst.  
He dropped his grip on Poe’s arm. “No! Stars, Poe, we can’t let that happen. You don’t know what their training is like in the First Order, and she’s with him, you have no idea—“  
“I think I have a better idea than most,” Poe said quietly. Finn blanched, having forgotten Poe’s torture on the command shuttle. Still, he would not be dissuaded.   
“We have to board the Supremacy. Do something!!” Unlike Poe, his voice volume was increasing. BB-8 hid behind Poe’s legs, beeping with anxiety.  
“Finn, you and I both know boarding the Supremacy is impossible, and even if we could, it would be a death sentence for everyone we took with us. That is their stronghold!” Poe rubbed his eyes.  
“Okay.” Finn began ripping and pulling the various sensors off his head, setting off a barrage of beeping. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “That’s fine.”  
“Finn, you can’t!”  
His first step sent him sprawling to the ground. Clinging to the bedframe, he managed to pick himself back up. He’d been walking a little bit each day, but his wound had been severe. The doctor said he’d carry the scar Kylo Ren had given him for the rest of his life, bacta or no bacta. That was fine. If he could get to the Supremacy, he could return the favor.  
“Finn, stop!” Poe was on his feet now.  
“I want to see General Organa.”  
“You can’t—“  
“NOW.”  
“Finn, she’s gone. She’s not here!” Poe’s brow was furrowed, as though he were worried that Finn might spontaneously die on him.  
He felt like he could at that moment. “She left us?”   
“No, no, no, she’s doing something elsewhere. You and I are supposed to come tomorr—“  
The world quaked around them. BB-8 shrieked. There was a brief second of deadly quiet before another explosion rocked the building. Poe responded first, heaving Finn to his feet.  
“We have to go. Now.” Another quake. “Can you walk, if we go slow?” Finn nodded. Explosions rattled him, reminded him too much of his first combat mission. He could smell the metallic scent of the blood his friend had wiped on him, hear the screaming…  
“Finn! Are you with me?” Poe was pulling on him hard, but he was starting to stagger. They reached the surface just in time to see half of the fleet go up in flames. People were everywhere, firing ground blasters at the invading ships, screaming, trying to salvage the ships. It was all in vain.  
“Run, run, go, hide! Get any ship that’s still running and get out of here. GO!” Resistance members scattered, and Finn was relieved to see the blink that meant some of them had made the jump to lightspeed and gotten away. The TIE fighters bore down on the building itself, engulfing it in smoke.   
Someone knocked into Finn from behind, and he and Poe both reached for non-existent blasters. Chewbacca roared, picking up Finn like a rag doll. Poe nodded, already starting to run. “Okay, let’s go, let’s go!” Finn noticed that they hadn’t sent any stormtroopers—this had been an extermination mission through and through. All firepower, no bodies.  
***  
The Millennium Falcon, damaged but miraculously still standing, was already prepared. While everyone else had panicked, Poe thought in wild amazement, Chewbacca had readied the ship. Poe sometimes forgot that the Wookie was a war veteran himself, and an asset when he needed to be. They crossed the threshold with a dozen other resistance members, mostly unhurt. Stars only knew how many they were leaving behind. Finn collapsed into the nearest seat.  
Poe ran for the cockpit, dimly aware that an argument seemed to be taking place there. He nearly crashed in C-3PO, who was in the middle of a heated exchange with Chewbacca.  
“…if you ever manhandle me like that again—“ He waved his metallic hands energetically.  
“MOVE,” Poe bellowed.   
They made the jump to lightspeed without obtaining any more damage to the ship. Poe registered faintly that if this had been under any other circumstance, he would be ecstatic to be flying the legendary Millennium Falcon. As it were, he felt a little sick. He turned to 3P0.  
“Tell General Organa that we are coming to her. All of us. Tell her the base has been destroyed, and I don’t know what else to do.”


	13. Chapter 13

“Wow.”  
“You’ve never seen ice?”  
“I’d never seen rain until a few weeks ago. Wow.” Rey almost had her nose pressed against the cockpit’s viewport. Kylo was guiding the ship downwards. The planet’s entire surface was covered in what looked like sheets of glass, with mountains of ice…  
Glaciers, Kylo amended moodily through the bond, listening to her thoughts.  
…dotting the landscape. She wanted to touch it.  
“Good, because that’s exactly where we’re going.” He glanced at her incredulously. “You saw snow on Star Killer.”  
Her face darkened. “Yes, well, this is different.”  
They continued their descent and landed in the same stony silence. He was wearing thick robes, and wrapped his cowl around his neck, yanking the hood over his head. She pulled at the dark cloak around her shoulders uncomfortably. It was lined with silver and looked far too much like First Order uniform for her liking.   
“Just put your hood up and come on.” She flipped the hood around her loose hair, glaring from under the seam. “And your gloves, Scavenger. Assuming you want to keep your fingers.” He glanced down. “You’ll have to take them off at some point, though.”  
He didn’t elaborate and she didn’t ask, which was how they got along best. What could really be said to someone who could see inside your head? They set off across the icy terrain. Rey was enchanted, and despite herself, went running and sliding across the ice. She fell in a pile of thick clothes and laughter. Kylo watched from a distance, wary, as she threw her head back and laughed again, hood sliding off and onto her shoulders. He wasn’t sure if he had ever laughed like that, or even known someone who did.   
Looking like the stupid bird she insisted on bringing everywhere, she managed to slide and flap her arms enough to get standing again. As he watched her, he felt a brief wave of guilt for what he was about to do, to put her through. He forced the thought away as quickly as it had come. Sensing the strange emotion, she looked up at him, laughter draining from her face.  
“So, where are we exactly?” She took long sweeping strides back toward him, clearly relishing the slip of the ice. Kylo, who hated anything that was out of his control, took short measured steps. From the outside he looked sure-footed, but he was drawing on the Force to sustain equilibrium.   
“It’s called Ilum. It has several caves which produce Kyber crystals.”  
Kyber crystals?  
“Sediment that is attuned to the Force, much like you and I. They’re rare, but this planet is plentiful, if you know where to look.” He paused in front of a glacier, pointing towards a divot in the ice. “You need one to build your lightsaber.” He smirked. “Well, you need two.”  
Rey slid through the cave entrance and could feel it at once. The thrum of the Force, of life, called to her from every angle. The crystals on the walls didn’t look like much—they were small and mostly colorless.   
“They’ll change when you attune to one.”   
She turned her hazel eyes back on him. “How do I do that?” He hesitated for a brief moment.  
“It’ll call to you. Reach out and feel it.” His comm beeped and he gritted his teeth, bracing himself, before hitting play. The girl had taken off her gloves and was running her fingers over the walls. He could feel her strength with the Force.  
“The mission was successful. Resistance base destroyed, over 400 dead, only a few ships managed evacuation. We didn’t lose one TIE pilot this time. Thank you for your assistance, Lord Ren.” Hux’s smug voice faded away as the message ended. Rey, who had just placed her hands on two large kyber crystals, turned slowly, pulling them from the wall.  
“What have you done?” Her eyes were thunder on his, and he could feel that power rolling off her in waves. Against every instinct, he stood his ground as she approached him.  
“I served my master.” He swallowed. “It’s already done.”  
She was breathing very hard now, shoulders heaving as she clutched the crystals. “Finn was there. You took that place from my head, and you gave it to them. You killed them.” Wicked awareness suddenly dawned across her face. “You’ve been muting my sensitivity since we left. So I wouldn’t know.”  
He shut his eyes. “Yes.”  
The scavenger’s first blow caught him under the chin, and he registered that she’d clocked him with her blaster. “You kriffing fuck. How dare you?” She hit him again, and this time he teetered on the edge of consciousness as the blaster collided with his temple. She pulled on the bond, not letting him go.  
He’d bitten his tongue when she struck, and he spat blood. “Your friend was a traitor who deserved what he got. I should have killed him when I had the chance.” He spat again. “I thought I had.” He glanced at the crystals in her hands. So close…  
Rey was furious with herself, with Kylo for not fighting back, for the lives that she had cost the resistance, for her own stupidity. The same insidious presence curled around her insides. Let me in, Rey. Use me. You can be so much stronger than anyone will tell you…  
Wracked with grief and destroyed by anger, she let it in.  
And broke.  
***  
The kyber crystals in her hands were screaming. That was the first thing she registered when she opened her eyes. They almost writhed in her hands, no longer white, but rusty in color and still clouded. She was alone, she realized, all traces of Kylo gone. Unsteadily, she got to her feet.  
The scene changed. She was standing on the cliff on Ach-To again, facing Luke Skywalker. He raised his lightsaber, green flashing against the grey sky. Instead of saving her, this time Kylo let Luke’s blade fall. Pain ripped through her chest, and she heard the insidious voice whisper: weak.  
Blackness, and then the same scene. This time, she saw what had really happened. Kylo blocked the blow, and Rey exploded. She Force-pushed the boy away and attacked Luke savagely, pushing her saber through his shoulder up to the hilt. Watching herself, she could see that wild happiness that sometimes crossed Kylo’s face had claimed her own. Past-Rey kicked Luke in the chest to free her saber, and rounded on Kylo Ren with the same intensity. Fear crossed his expression, and he swung his saber hilt at her skull…  
She was lying face down now, and realized with horror that she had been here before, in the vision on Takodona. Rain was pounding the ground all around her. She barely turned over in time to see the Knight of Ren swing his weapon, let alone register anything but shock. The fear she had felt before, she realized, was Kylo Ren’s as he came up behind the knight, skewering his own man with his lightsaber. He tossed the body to the side and reached for her hand…  
Luke Skywalker was walking slowly towards her, saying something she couldn’t hear. He lunged at her and the wild thing in her chest snarled. She spun her weapon and Luke fell at her feet, making the creature that was her, but wasn’t her, smile…  
A throne room materialized around her, something that resembled the Supremacy. Agony like she had never felt in her life almost cleaved her in two. She hit her knees, screaming, and knocked into Kylo, who seemed to be experiencing the same sensation. He was doubled-over, shaking, but he grabbed for her hand. She grasped it, and the pain ebbed slightly. Somewhere outside of the crippling pain, a voice quaked with mirth.   
“Oh how interesting, Kylo Ren! You never cease to disappoint me. There was a ripping sensation and then the bond went quiet. She screamed again…  
Let me in. You can be great. This will protect you. The monster seemed to hug her.  
Yes, she thought, terrified and grief stricken. Help me save them, save him.   
Something seemed to wash over her, hot and dark, and then she was screaming for real.  
“Rey. Rey!” Kylo pulled up sharply on the bond, clinging to it in his mind. “Not all the way, not all the way, fight it!” He spat another mouthful of blood on the cave floor where he was cradling the girl. The kyber crystals in her hands were a brilliant red, resembling vials of blood against her pale skin. He heaved on the bond again. “Come on,” he breathed. “Come back.”  
He almost passed out with relief when she opened her eyes. She immediately began to struggle and hyperventilate, and he gently pushed on her mind. Calm. It’s okay. The girl relaxed a fraction and leaned back into him. “What was that,” she whispered.  
“The Dark Side doesn’t give without taking. You poured all of what you just felt into your crystals.” She glanced down at the red crystals in shock. “You bled them. They’ll be stronger now.”  
“I…” She faltered on what to say, but tucked the crystals in her pocket. “I want to go home.”  
Kylo picked her up, and she was so disoriented she didn’t care. The cave, she realized, no longer wanted them there. The light seemed to recoil from her, but she could still make it bend to her will. She flexed her stiff fingers.  
“Yes,” Kylo said quietly. “That feeling takes some getting used to.” He walked carefully across the ice plane with her, small steps again. “I can feel it around you now. The Dark Side.”  
She could as well, but wasn’t ready to acknowledge it. “Could you see what I saw?”  
“Pieces.”   
Rey considered this. “Did that happen to you?”  
Kylo grimaced. “Yes. And I had no one to wake me up. That’s how I cracked my crystal.”  
She thought of her last vision, and imagined being trapped in it. Something hurt in her chest—pity or revulsion, she wasn’t sure. Kylo carried her onto the Silencer, where neither of them spoke for the rest of the trip.


	14. Chapter 14

Kylo left Rey at the landing dock, nearly running in his haste to get away from her. Just as with the murder of Han Solo, he was shaken that something he wanted so much should make him feel this way. Where there had once been comforting light at the opposite end of the bond, darkness now gathered. It pulled at him, calling his name, making everything more intense than before. He leaned against the corridor wall, trying to master himself.   
Slowly, he pulled his lightsaber from the holster and held the hilt to the left. Without thinking about it, he thrust the metal into his wounded side. Tiny stars exploded in front of his vision, and hot pain radiated out from the wound’s center. The Dark came to him then, pulling on the pain, making him angry that he allowed himself to be so weak. It sharpened his senses and cleared his head. The strength returned; he could do this.  
Snoke agreed to see him right away; he did not stand on ceremony, but was viciously protective of whatever he did when he was alone. Kylo strode in confidently, despite his bloody mouth and slowly bruising face. He stopped on the dais, feet from Snoke.  
“It is done, Master.”   
“Yes, I felt it.” He stood and joined Kylo on the dais. “She is strong, as you said. Walk with me.”  
He obliged, falling into step beside his master. They entered the observation deck, looking out at the oblivion of space. Views like this had once excited Kylo as an opportunity for adventure; now, he simply marveled at the isolation. The last time he had stood on a viewing deck, he mused, was during the destruction of the republic, unflinching as his childhood worlds were incinerated. He had hidden his feelings then, and he could do it now.  
Snoke was once again pensive, staring into the abyss as if he could see something that Kylo could not. “You let her injure you—again?” His master observed the bruise blooming near his temple.  
“I antagonized her. The Dark side calls to her, but she has to be motivated to respond.”  
The Supreme Leader made a humming noise. “So she does not possess your temper.”  
Kylo chuckled humorlessly. “I would not say that.”  
There were a few more beats of silence before Snoke spoke again. “You pulled her back from the brink of completely turning. So she is much like you now.” Kylo didn’t breathe, didn’t blink.  
“Yes.”  
“Hmmm.” Snoke continued to look out, past Kylo, past the stars. “You’ve never asked me, Kylo Ren, why I’ve never gifted you with a Darth title.”  
He barely moved his mouth in reply. “I am not a Sith, my master.” Hatred bubbled within him.  
“No, you are not. And I prefer it that way, as your ability to attune to Dark and Light has been indispensable to me.” Kylo had not missed the past tense in the sentence and jerked his head to look at the Supreme Leader.  
Snoke smiled. “I sense conflict around you, Kylo Ren. If what you say about the girl is true, and she too can use a balance…perhaps it is time to complete your training.” Kylo realized that he was clutching the railing too tightly and let go.  
“As you wish, master.”  
“So little enthusiasm from the boy who dreams of being as powerful as Darth Vader.” The air around them seemed to shudder with Snoke’s quiet rage. “Your grandfather would never have fallen from greatness, boy, had he not allowed himself the weakness of conflict that Luke Skywalker stirred in him.”  
Kylo looked at him, searching the alien face. “I have no further weakness, master.”  
There was a sharp pain as Snoke reached through the Force to his mind, ten times stronger than his own ability. His master pulled at an image of Rey in his head, laughing on the ice planet. “No further weakness, but you are shielding thoughts of her from me. No further weakness, but you pull her back from the dark. No further weakness, but you are angry with me even now for questioning it.”  
Snoke pulled roughly out of his head and Kylo stifled a groan. “If you serve me well, there is nothing that I would deny you, Kylo Ren. Show me you deserve to have an apprentice. Prove to me that you are not the emotional fool I take you for.”  
“Master?”  
“Take the girl, train her as you wish—“ Snoke was returning to his chair now, and Kylo followed silently. “When she is ready, you both will bring me the heads of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa.”  
Kylo bit down on his maimed tongue again, bringing a flood of fresh blood. He swallowed, working against the nausea moving up his throat. “Leia Organa is not a Jedi—“  
“Leia Organa is strong with the Force, and only a fool would overlook her. I am not a fool. You will kill her!” Snoke’s voice was thunderous, but the Pratorean guards near the throne did not flinch. “The Skywalkers will not cross me again.”  
Kylo bowed his head and sank to one knee. “As you wish, master.” He looked up again, desperately. “The girl does not have the skill to defeat Skywalker.”  
His master observed him coldly. “Then make it so.” He clapped his hands together, this time succeeding in startling his guards. “Get out of my sight.”  
***  
When Kylo returned, Rey was lying in her bed with the porg, stroking its feathers slowly. She watched him through glassy eyes as he entered her room, looked at her, then abruptly shut his mouth and ran for the refresher. For the next ten minutes, she lay perfectly still, listening to him retch and eventually, the sound of running water. Kylo still looked sick when he emerged, but less pale than before. He squatted by the side of her bed, making them roughly eye-level.   
“You have to get up.”  
“I can’t.” Her voice sounded far away. “I feel sick.”  
“Yes, me too. Get up.” Her eyes drifted from the scarred half of his face to the bruising on his left. She reached out and touched the bruise, making Kylo jump. He didn’t pull away.  
“I did this?” Kylo nodded in response, jostling her fingertips. Rey furrowed her brow, then smiled. “Yes, yes I did. Because I wanted to.” She smiled wider. “It felt good.” Her face fell and Kylo was awash in the confusion she sent over the bond. “What is wrong with me?”  
“You’re feeling things you normally keep hidden for fear of calling to the Dark Side. It’s with you now, so you’re less...cautious.” He pulled his face away from her hand. “If you wallow in it as you’re doing now, it’s going to continue to feed on your fear, on you. You need to distract yourself and learn to turn it outwards.” He held out a hand. “Come on.” She stared at him and the creature inside her hissed at the power he exuded. This, it seemed to say, is a dangerous enemy.  
She took his hand and he stood, pulling her into a sitting position. “Where are we going?”  
“First, to eat something that did not come out of a portion pack.” He eyed the empty wrappers on her table. “Second, you are going to sleep for the entire night. And then tomorrow, I will teach you how to control this.” He made a sweeping motion in her direction with his hand.  
Rey staggered out of the room behind Kylo, the porg waddling happily behind them. She gently scooted the creature back into her room and closed the door. The distraction allowed her to pretend she had not just heard another thought that did not belong to either of them from across the bond: Ben, what have you done?


	15. Chapter 15

I have been away for a very long time. This was Luke Skywalker’s private thought as his sister lead him through the velvet-carpeted hallways of the monstrous casino that they had taken refuge in. Every few feet, shuttles and speeders whizzed by the viewports. Leia moved ahead of him, regal in a floor-length gunmetal gown, her hair piled artfully on top of her head in her Alderaanian braids. She looked over her shoulder at him quizzically.   
“What are you smiling at?”  
Luke shook his head and grinned. “I was just thinking that you still look like a princess, and I every bit the farm boy.” He shifted slightly in his brown robes, careful to keep his artificial limb tucked away.  
Leia smirked and lead Luke through a set of revolving doors into a den of noise. “Believe me, brother, I am going to stand out far less than you.”  
She was right about that, Luke thought. The epicenter of the casino was a melee of noise, flashing lights, and music. Humanoid and alien lifeforms reclined on leather chairs and silken sofas, wearing finery to rival kings. Every so often, a cheer or curse would emanate from one of the gambling tables and the holos would switch scores. Serving droids skittered about, shoving drinks and tokens into hands. Luke blinked. After the solitude of Ahch-To, this was a lot to take in.   
He leaned over Leia’s shoulder, whispering. “How is it that the First Order hasn’t come down on this place yet? There are very few worlds left that are allowed this kind of—prosperity.”  
“Well, there you have it. There are not many places like this left, and the well-to-do of the First Order have to have somewhere to let off steam.” Another round of drunken cheers and boos exploded from a nearby corner. “Add to it that it’s not strictly approved of, and you have a lot of people with money in their pockets willing to keep it quiet.” She sidestepped a buzzing droid as it chased a long-snouted cardshark from the premises. “All the same, keep your head down.”  
Leia led them through the bustling crowd to a doorway marked private. The security droid at the door stepped aside for them at once, allowing them to enter a quieter, darker room.  
“Leia. Organa. Of. Alderaan!” A whimsical voice sang out from a corner of the room. Several of the occupants turned around to cast them curious glances. As if by magic, a statuesque human woman materialized out of the gloom and grasped Leia’s hands. The woman’s lavender hair glistened against her alabaster skin. “So glad to see you out of the catacombs for once. I almost sent a search party for you, and where would we have been then?” She laughed, surprisingly warm and full.  
Luke realized that he was staring and shut his mouth quickly. His sister noted the awkwardness.  
“Amilyn, this is my brother, Luke.” There was no mistaking it this time. Despite the softness of Leia’s voice, every head in the room turned to them once again. “Luke, this is Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, supporter of the resistance and very, very dear friend.” He nodded at her respectfully and nearly fell over when she embraced him.  
“The legendary Luke Skywalker come to help us at last, although I’m sure you have a hard time touching your sister’s, genius, eh?” Luke chuckled. Leia looked embarrassed.  
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Amilyn.”  
The purple-haired admiral smiled. “Oh, where’s the fun if there’s not a bit of sibling rivalry?” She clapped her hands together. “Listen to me. Come, Luke, meet a few people.”  
Amilyn lead them to the back of the room, where several people sat gathered around a large table. To Luke’s surprise, there were no gambling wagers here, but holo screens detailing what very much looked like battle plans. The admiral began to gesture to the seated attendees.   
“This is Rose Tico, one of our mechanics.” A woman with dark, almond shaped eyes and a bright smiled blinked up at him. “Her sister Paige, one of our best resistance pilots.” This woman merely nodded at Luke, the older sister lacking the bubbliness of her younger counterpart, despite their similar looks. At the end of the table, a man reclined. If Luke looked out of place on this planet, it was nothing compared to this dark and brooding individual. The man had his dusty boots on the pristine table and blaster holster strapped to his leg.   
The admiral hesitated. “This is DJ, an incomparable asset and pain in the—“  
“Luke Skywalker.” The man’s voice was a low growl, but held enough ire that everyone turned to him. “Nice of you to finally show your face. I’d be embarrassed, but I guess some people aren’t ashamed of cowardliness.” DJ brought a deathstick to his lips and took a long drag, never breaking eye contact as he blew the smoke towards Luke. His stomach clenched.  
“DJ!” Admiral Holdo smacked the table with an open palm. “You can shut your mouth, or I will have you go grace someone else with your charming attributes.”  
DJ snorted. “That’s fine, Admiral. I’m here as a gift to you. I can just as easily go elsewhere. Forgive me for not fawning in the presence of the chosen one.” He blew a circle of smoke across the table. “My apologies, General Organa.”  
Leia merely offered him a scathing gaze. “My brother once visited your home planet, Amilyn.” This was a transparent change of subject, but Luke appreciated it all the same.  
The admiral’s face took on a cartoonish quality as it again lit up. “Oh, yes? You’ve been to Gatalenta?”   
Luke smiled at her enthusiasm. “Oh, yes. Your homeworld’s history with the Jedi order runs deep. I did spend quite some time studying there.” His face saddened, old age overtaking it again. “It’s where I met Lor San Tekka.”  
Amilyn nodded. “A terrible loss, that one. However, I’m so glad that you were able to—“  
The holo screens above the time flashed twice, changing from blue to red. Rose tapped the accept button at the Admiral’s silent nod.  
Leia gasped as she heard her name, then Threepio’s voice, detailing the attack on the resistance base and their imminent arrival in Canto Bright. Amilyn let the message play through once more before turning to them. “Thank the Force that some of them made it out,” she murmured.   
“Alert the others.” She waved at the front of the room. “Tell them to make preparations for visitors and prepare the medtechs.” Instantly, people began to move about the room, barking into comm links. Luke realized that this was a private room for military operations, not gambling. “Leia and I will go to meet them.”  
The two leaders left together, stranding Luke at the table with Dj, who leaned in with a nasty smile.  
“So, Skywalker. Let’s see how a kriffing hero saves the day.” Another puff on the deathstick.   
Luke was seized by the sudden, desperate desire to still be lying in a puddle of his own blood on Ahch-To.


	16. Chapter 16

“Do it again.”   
“I don’t want to.”  
“I’m waiting.” Rey frowned in concentration, raising her right hand. Kylo Ren sat cross-legged in front of her, eyes closed. She strained.  
“I can’t.” She let her hand fall towards her lap. Kylo caught it between both of his.  
He opened his dark eyes and finally betrayed a hint of impatience. “Because you’re not using it. The Dark Side will come just as readily as the light now. Reach for it, Scavenger.” He leaned in closer, violating the 12 inches of personal space she liked to maintain. “Aren’t you angry with me?”   
Rey glowered and raised her hand again. This time the Force seemed to flood her veins as she reached out into it, and the Dark answered. She hurtled into Kylo’s head, intuition guiding her to what she wanted. His thoughts seemed to break before her, lock tumblers disintegrating. Dimly, she could feel his discomfort through the bond and pushed harder. The creature inside her chest whispered pain.  
“That’s enough!” The man’s Force push sent her skidding back several feet across the floor, landing hard on one elbow. He brought his hand unconsciously to his temple, looking appeased. “Good.”  
She rubbed her smarting arm. “Finn’s not dead.”  
“You got all that just now? Very good.”  
“You lied to me on Ilum.”  
“I never said he died. You didn’t give me a chance.” She opened her mouth to argue, and he held up a hand. “Do you wish otherwise?”  
“No!”   
Ren took advantage of her confusion to continue on his lesson. “Not every mind will be that easy. I left mine wide open for you just now, plus you have the bond to lean on, which makes us vulnerable to one another.” He looked down at his knees. “However, it should give you a good idea of what dealing with the mind of a non-Force sensitive person is like. They can’t resist it like we can.”  
She flexed her fingers, lost in thought. “That was easier than…”  
“Than compelling my guard to let you go? Yes. You were only using the Light then, which will help you with suggestion. The Dark is more accepting of the manipulation of free will.” He smiled ruefully. “Imagine my shock on Star Killer when you pushed into my head with all that rage. I had been leaning on the light, trying not to hurt you, only to have you kick through my defenses like they were nothing.”  
Rey didn’t smile. “Your fear betrayed you, Ben.”  
“As will yours, if you can’t learn to harness it.” The smile slid off his face. He stood, and she marveled at the fluidity of his motions, despite his long limbs. “Stand up. I’ve got something for you.”  
She eyed him suspiciously as she rose, shaking out her dark tunic. “If you hit me with something, I will kill you.”  
Promises, promises. He didn’t bother speaking the thought aloud, a habit they both had fallen into lately. Instead, he lifted a long cylindrical hilt from the table behind him and tossed it to her. “I finished it last night.”   
Rey gazed down at the lightsaber in her hands, savoring the feel of the weapon in her possession, the crystals she’d taken from Ilum singing to her. She hit the switch to engage it. Two red beams burst from each end, more stable than Kylo’s, but just as brilliantly colored. It wasn’t a sword—it was a staff. He circled around her slowly as she spun it. “Throw it,” he whispered.  
She cocked her arm without thinking and threw the lightsaber hard across the room. It made contact with a holo-screen, shattering it on impact. “Call it back to you.” That was easy now—she reached into the Force and called the weapon to return to her. It neatly jumped back into her hands, humming with power. Rey smiled in spite of herself. It was more than she could have hoped for.  
Kylo reached around her from behind, tapping each side of the saber’s hilt. “Two crystals, one on each end. If the weapon is compromised in battle, even severed in two, you’ll still have one working end. Maybe both, depending on the degree and placement of the damage.” He pressed the switch, sending the blades back from where they came. “I believe the words you are looking for are ‘thank you’, Scavenger.” His chest brushed against her shoulder.  
Still reverent in her own happiness, she barely whispered. “Thank you.” Kylo released his hold on the lightsaber and stepped away from her.  
“You’re welcome. Also, thank you for telling General Hux you shattered that holo-screen. I’ve been needing a new one.” He left the room, barely dodging the piece of broken holo she sent flying at his head.  
***  
“Do you feel it, Ben?” Luke Skywalker was standing ankle deep in snow, wearing a ridiculous hat that had tufts of fur sticking out of the brim. Fourteen-year-old Ben was willing to overlook it, if what he was sensing was right. He breathed deeply.  
“Yes. Where are they?” He bounced one leg excitedly, forgetting, for a moment, about the cold on this frozen wasteland.   
The boy’s uncle smiled at him, crinkling his blue eyes. Luke was struck by how quickly his nephew had moved from childhood to this gangly, coltish new-ness. Too often, he still expected to see the cherubic toddler with his sister’s big dark eyes and was surprised by this intense—  
Dangerous?  
\--dark young man.   
He shook away the thought. “In here.” Together they approached a minute cave entrance, barely a sliver in the ice. Ben slid through easily, leaving Luke to edge his way in. All around them, kyber crystals glinted against the sheets of glass. The boy slid his hand across the wall, looking puzzled.   
“They look smoky, Uncle.” He cocked his head to the side, listening. “I can hear them.”  
“Good, yes.” He clapped a hand over the boy’s shoulder, pushing him closer to the wall. “Does one call to you?” Luke had expected this to take several minutes, but the boy’s hand lighted on one of the crystals instantly. He tugged it from the icy cave wall.  
Luke watched silently as Ben pressed the crystal between his palms and closed his eyes. The air in the cave seemed to warm and thicken, crackling with intensity. The boy’s strength with the Force was almost incomparable. In fact, sometimes he reminded Luke of—  
No, don’t think that.  
Ben opened his hands, bathing his face in a warm glow. He frowned. “It’s orange.”  
There was a pregnant pause. “So it is.”  
The boy looked concerned. “I thought it would be green, like yours. Or blue. That was common, right?” His face darkened into a pout, something that Luke had learned to head off early with his nephew. “Is orange wrong, bad?”  
Luke forced a smile. “No, Ben. Orange isn’t unheard of, it’s just… unusual.” He paused again. “It was a color favored by the Grey Jedi.”  
“Grey Jedi?”  
“A religion of the Force that believed in balance. They often butted heads with the Jedi order, mainly because they were unwilling to completely renounce the dark side of the Force.”  
Ben’s head snapped up, flinging his dark hair away from his face. “Why?”  
For the first time, Luke had misgivings about bringing the boy here. He chose his words carefully.   
“The Grey Jedi felt that in order to achieve perfect, orderly balance, some semblance of the dark had to remain. That no one could use the entirety of the power of the Force for good without both. Which is not true.” He gave Ben a stern look. “The Dark Side cannot help what it is. It seeks to devour and destroy. The Dark and Light are not compatible. We face this choice every day, Ben.”  
The boy dropped his head, tucking away the wild interest that had overtaken his expression. “Yes, Uncle Luke. Forgive me my curiosity.” He clutched the crystal in his fist. “I would never, ever—“  
“I know, Ben. Let’s get going before your mother thinks I’ve really lost you this time.”  
***  
“I’m worried about him, Leia.” Luke’s sister observed him through the shaky holo image, trying to read his body language. “I’ve taken him halfway around the galaxy and I still sense that—“  
“Presence around him.” Leia pressed her hand to her cheek. “We’ve been scouring the far reaches for months, Luke. Only a handful of those Force-sensitive individuals I have managed to track down have even felt it.”   
Luke banged his fist on the arm of his seat in an uncharacteristic display of temper. On Leia’s screen, the holo-image shook. “I’m sorry. I know you’re doing your best and you have other things going on. He’s just so strong already, and I worry.”  
“He’s not Vader, Luke. This is my son.” Leia was becoming irritated, leaning forward in her seat.  
“I know, Leia, I love him too. But there are similarities with our father—“  
Leia stood, silencing him. Despite the holo-screen and her lack of height, she displayed presence that could rival most warlords. “Han and I thought we were doing what was best in sending him with you. I still think that. You’re haunted, Luke, and it makes you nervous. Train him, teach him. He will learn to do good.” She looked over her shoulder at something offscreen. “I have to go.”  
“Do you want to talk to him?”  
“No, no, I can’t. They are having an emergency meeting of the Senate—“  
“An overused word there, I think, emergency.”   
Leia finally granted him a smile. “All the same, I have to go. Give him my love. I’ll call him tomorrow.” She frowned. “Both of you, stay safe.”  
The comm screen blinked and shut off. Ben slid out of the refresher doors, shrugging into a sleep shirt. “Was that mom?”  
Luke nodded. “Yes, and she had to go. She said she’ll call again soon.” The boy didn’t answer, looking over Luke’s shoulder as though lost in thought. No—as if someone had called his name.  
“Ben?”  
“Yes? Yes. That’s fine. Are we going to build this now?” He rolled the crystal between his fingers.  
With a feeling of dread he couldn’t quite comprehend, Luke answered. “Yes.”


	17. Chapter 17

“Too far gone, the boy is. Too hardened in his heart.” The chirpy voice cut through the void.  
“You don’t know that to be true.” This was a younger man’s voice, harsher than the other.  
“Feel his fear, I can.” They both could, permeating the Force.  
“But the girl—“ Another man’s regal accent cut in.  
“The girl could help him.” The younger voice grew desperate.  
“If he fears losing her, she could push him further towards the darkness,” the third responded.  
Sadness tinged the chirpy voice’s next statement. “Already there, he is.”   
“Then the girl is lost as well.”   
“You’re wrong, Obi-Wan—“   
Rey sat up in bed, breathing hard. Her porg stirred sleepily beside her before nuzzling into her side and going back to sleep. She tapped her comm to check the time and tried to slow her breathing. Whatever she had just witnessed was unlike any commune she had ever had before. Then the girl is lost as well.  
Gently, she slid off the mattress, easing the porg onto her still-warm pillow. Her bare feet made almost no noise as she crept towards the door. No one was in the antechamber room. All of the holo screens were dark, something she expected due to the lateness of the hour. She crossed to the second door and banged on it, fist clenched.  
No answer. She smacked it again with an open palm. “Kylo.” She tugged on the bond between them. Ben!  
The door slid open and Kylo stood glowering down at her. “Can I help you, Scavenger?” She pushed past him into his room. “Maybe I’ve mentioned I don’t sleep well as it is?”  
“That is not my problem. Listen to me.” She flapped her hands impatiently around her face, lowering her mental shields and inviting him in. “Listen.”  
She felt his presence in her mind and watched his expression as he sifted through what she had just heard through the Force. Shock, anger, and then inexplicably—fear. He grabbed her shoulders.  
“Did you speak to any of them?”  
“No, but—“  
“Did they acknowledge your presence?”  
“No…” She was completely bewildered and out of her depth.   
“Do not talk to the younger one. Actually, don’t talk to any of them, but particularly not the younger man.” He shook her a little. “Rey?”  
She shrugged him off. “Why didn’t you tell me I could do this? Who are they?”   
To her surprise, he sat back down on his bed and put his head in his hands. She was reminded forcefully of their battle on Ahch-To. “Ben?”  
“I’ve asked you not to call me that.”   
Not out loud, she thought peevishly.   
“You are hearing old Jedi masters. Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi— and Anakin Skywalker.”  
Skywalker. Rey mouthed the name. “Your—“  
“Grandfather, yes. You heard him as he was before he fell to the Dark side, the purity of that Force preserved.”   
“Then why—“  
“Because that is not the only part of him that still manifests! Darth Vader’s Force-ghost is well aware and active. Communing with one can and will bring the other.” He reached for her and withdrew his hand almost instantly. “Do not let him in your head, Rey.”   
“Is that what you’ve done?”  
Kylo avoided her gaze. “Supreme Leader says that my grandfather is my past, present, and future.” He rolled over, turning away from her. “You’re difficult enough to train as it is. Promise me you won’t call to them.”  
Rey stood there looking down on them. “A promise to a monster?”  
He rolled over and smiled crookedly, his Solo coming through. “No,” he said, pulling on the darkness at her end of the bond, “a promise from a monster.”  
She didn’t flinch, but he felt her bristle through the connection. He sighed.  
“Listen, Scavenger, do you want to go through what happened on Ilum again?”  
Rey swallowed, overly formal. “Not particularly.”  
“Then listen to me. The Supreme Leader will want to meet with you soon. The last thing you need is to weaken your resolve or become overly emotional right now. Let me protect you while I still can.” His dark eyes searched her face again, giving away nothing. “Go to sleep, Scavenger.”  
Rey left quietly, making sure Kylo’s door had slid shut behind her. She sat at one of the antechamber tables, breathing slowly and deeply until she felt Ren’s awareness lessen at the end of the bond. Once she was sure he was asleep, she reached into the Force.  
“Ah. The girl.” This voice was deeper, almost modulated, with the raspy quality of something wrong brought to life.  
Heady darkness surrounded her. The creature in her skin purred.  
“Hello, Lord Vader.”


	18. Chapter 18

Poe Dameron stumbled off the ramp and into General Organa’s arms. She squeezed him tightly for a moment before pulling away.  
“General, I’m so sorry. There was nothing we could do, by the time we realized we were being hit, they’d taken out the ground artillery—“  
“Poe.” She took his face in her hands and spoke firmly. “You did fine. You did wonderfully. There was nothing else you could have done, nothing.” Several teenaged resistance members tumbled onto the platform, where they were immediately swarmed by Holdo’s medics. “Every single one of these lives were worth it.” She dropped her hands to his shoulders and smiled. “We’re not fighting to win every battle—we’re fighting to keep an idea alive.”  
He nodded, still shocked by the loss. For one childish minute, he longed to throw himself back into her arms again. Poe’s mother had been lost to Bloodburn years and years ago, and General Organa had filled that void. Before everything went to pieces, they had been a family. It was that word that spurred him to his next thought.  
“General, Finn knows. He’s here, and he knows and he’s not happy.”  
“That does not surprise me.” She glanced at the Millennium Falcon with apprehension. “How long do we have?”  
Poe chuckled. “Probably until they wheel him off that ship and he catches sight of you.”  
“Right.” She glanced around the platform. “Can you get him and bring him to me? Same place we were last time. We shouldn’t do this here.”  
“Um…”  
“That’s an order, Dameron.” She winked at him before sliding back into the crowd, calling out orders and grasping hands with survivors. Poe shook his head as he watched her lead. This, he knew, was where General Organa was in her element. Something knocked into his leg.  
“Hi, buddy! We made it, yeah?” Poe straightened the antenna on top of BB-8’s head. “Where’s our friend?”  
The little droid gave a high shriek and spun on its base. Poe followed its gaze to the dock, where Finn was now slowly staggering, leaning on a med-droid. He caught sight of Poe and broke into a smile. “Little help here? I’m afraid I’m going to bend this dinosaur.” The med-droid beeped in what Poe could only call indignation, and seemed more than happy to deposit Finn’s arm around his shoulders. It sped off to help someone else at once.  
“Some luck, eh?”  
“If you can call it that. Someone gave away our location, Poe.” He frowned deeply. “Where is General—“  
“Hi!” A short girl with blunt bangs and almond shaped eyes was standing in front of them, blocking their way into the building. “I’m Rose, a mechanic here. Did you get clearance to come inside?” She said all of this very quickly, as though she’d only been given one breath per thought. Poe and Finn stared at her. She grinned back easily.  
“I’m only kidding, I saw you with General Organa. I think she’s waiting for you in her quarters, but I’d hurry if I were you—busy woman and all that.” She crinkled her eyebrows, studying Finn’s haphazard lean. “If you can. Do you need help?”  
“No—“  
“Yes.”   
They had both spoken at once, and Poe shot Finn and exasperated look. “Yes, please, Rose. That’d be great.” She cheerfully took Finn’s other arm and half drug him into the building.   
“You really are messed up. What happened to you?”  
Leaning slightly behind Finn, Poe shook his head aggressively at the girl, eyes wide.  
“Ooh-kay, never mind.” She didn’t seem to be bothered by their sullen charge. “General Organa is in there. I’m going back up. Maybe I’ll see you two around?”   
Without waiting for an answer, she bounded back up the corridor. Finn was still staring at her, his expression pained. “What the…”  
“You got me. Still, here you go!” Poe cheerfully smacked the door panel and it slid open. General Organa was standing in front of a holo screen with two other people, neither of which Finn recognized. He managed to make his way slowly across the room and into a chair, his friend close behind him. Determined to be reasonable, Finn took a breath.  
“General, we have to talk—“  
“Yes, I know, soldier.” Leia turned and looked down at him. “I’m happy to see you. Let me introduce Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, who has been kind enough to host us here in Canto Bright.” The willowy woman to her right smiled at Finn. “And my brother, Luke Skywalker.”   
Finn searched the old man’s face as he turned around, looking for any hint of the danger the First Order had been certain lay within him. He hadn’t been one to put much stock in hero tales—not that they were part of the academy curriculum—so he’d never been as taken with the Jedi legends as some of the other-worlders with whom he had crossed paths. It was only occurring to him now that maybe the stories were right. This man had cost him Rey.   
“You. You let her go.” Finn surveyed him with thinly veiled disgust. “We were counting on you!”  
Skywalker didn’t raise his voice. “No one regrets what happened more than—“  
“More than you?! Are you kidding me?” He turned to General Organa, a plea creeping into his voice. “Please, General, we have to get her back. You know she’s the reason why the base was hit.”  
Complete silence fell around them. “Leia, is this true?” The oddly dressed Admiral looked around at all of them. “Were we compromised by someone inside?”  
Leia pressed her lips together in a firm line. “It is possible that Kylo Ren was able to get the information from Rey.”   
“Ky-Kylo Ren…your SON!” Finn’s temper hit a breaking point. “You’re letting hundreds of people die to protect your son!”  
“Finn,” Poe whispered.  
Luke took a step towards him. “Listen to me—“  
“Leia…” The Admiral looked stricken.   
The general raised one hand, cutting all of them off. “Finn, you are so right to be angry, but I need you to listen to me, and listen well. Can you do that?” The severity in her voice quailed him, and he nodded silently. Leia addressed all of them.  
“I do want to protect my son. I do not, cannot, condone what he is and what he’s done, but I can’t tell you that I’m willing to kill him for the greater good either. I am not that big.” She closed her eyes briefly. “However, do not for one minute suggest that I don’t care about my people. I have spent my life fighting for this justice, long before you were ever born.”  
She clasped her hands in front of her. “Rey is at a very delicate place in a much greater game. She shares a connection with Kylo Ren that makes them vulnerable to each other.” Finn opened his mouth, and she held up a hand again. “The Supreme Leader of the First Order is well aware of this connection. If something or someone should try to breech it—“  
“We would get them both killed.” The horror of what she was suggesting began to settle on Finn.  
“As well as give away our position,” Luke added. “Or, at the very least, we would spur them into fighting each other. Two corresponding pieces clashing—it will not end well.” He looked at Leia. “Those two are our best hope of defeating Snoke.” Another pause. “We need them.”  
“So that’s it?” Finn wilted in his seat. “We’re done.”  
“Not quite.” Skywalker rested a hand on Leia’s shoulder. “Their connection is strong, with particular influence on thoughts and feelings. To convince one might be enough to convince the other.”  
Poe got it before Finn did. “You need them to come home.”  
“We need them both to come, without a fight, without a struggle. Any greater disturbance in the Force will be picked up on by Snoke.” Luke did not look hopeful.  
“If I might suggest something—“ All five of them jumped as a voice came from the doorway. BB-8 shrieked. A dark-looking man (smuggler, Finn thought privately) leaned there, grinning at them.  
The Admiral frowned. “Yes, DJ?”  
“Leave the boy and the girl to it. I’m not much for family or feelings, but I know the Force legends. If they have a bond, they’ll be hard pressed to leave each other now that they’ve found it.” No one spoke, and he continued. “Give it as long as you can to really strengthen, and then send this hero in to convince one of them to come back. He seems pretty willing to risk his kriffing life.” Finn glared at him.  
“If it works,” Luke said slowly, “it might be the best way to get them back.”  
Leia nodded. “If Rey can reach Ben…”  
“And Finn can convince her to come back…”  
“…she’ll bring him.” Leia turned to her colleague. “What do you think, Amilyn? Can we hold out here for a while longer? We’ll need reconnaissance to prepare Finn for the infiltration, maybe an attack for distraction.”  
The Admiral smiled. “Oh, Leia, you know there is nothing I like better than a runaway plan. I have the resources. Yes, let’s do it. It seems our hands are tied.” She glanced at Finn. “Are you sure you’re best suited for this mission, soldier? Your injury—“  
“Oh, he’s well suited, Amilyn. He was a stormtrooper.” The Admiral’s face darkened rapidly. Finn could see her automatically start to reassess him and who he she thought he was.  
From the doorway, DJ began to laugh. “Oh, stars above, that is good.” He stretched and backed out of the doorframe. “I’ve solved one argument today; this one is on you.”


	19. Chapter 19

Kylo Ren was in a towering temper. The girl had been gone when he’d awoken, and the consequential fit had resulted in the death of another holo screen. It was still smoking behind him when he wrenched the door open and strode down the corridor, shoving anyone who had not possessed the brains to get out of his kriffing way. Smarter people melted into the walls to avoid him.  
The doors to the Supreme Leader’s chambers were wide, which Kylo saw as both invitation and threat. He did not break step once as the four red-armored guards stepped in front of him, crossing their weapons. Instead, he clenched his gloved hand and jerked sharply upwards before throwing all four Praetorians through the doors. They did not move.  
“Rash, Kylo Ren. Is something troubling you?” Snoke was sitting on his stone chair, looking unnervingly pleased, like a Hutt with all the credits in the galaxy. Kylo had spent enough time with his master to know that nothing good could come of this look. He tried to surreptitiously feel out the room for the girl’s presence, face hidden by his helmet. Yes, his infrared scanner picked up three beings (not including the four bodies rapidly cooling from red to blue that he’d left on the floor) in the chamber.  
Snoke laughed. “Why not just scream her name, Lord Ren?”  
“Unnecessary.” The Scavenger’s voice came from the far side of the room, near the viewport. “He’s only angry that I came without him.” She was wearing a dark hood—in fact, he was almost certain it was one of his—that she tossed haughtily back. Her glare was accusatory and Kylo felt the heat of anger from across the bond.  
“She is exceptional, Kylo Ren. You’ve done well.” Snoke pressed the tips of his fingers together. “Which is why I am confused as to why you’re not teaching her to commune.”  
Kylo scoffed, the noise exacerbated by his helmet modulator. “She’s easily overwhelmed—weak.”  
“Hmm.” His master appraised him for a moment, then leaned forward. “Let’s test that theory, shall we?”  
“Master?”  
“Show me. Duel.”  
Kylo felt Rey’s awareness peak at the end of the bond, pulling it taut. He had just opened his mouth to argue when she engaged her lightsaber. Red beams burst from each end, one illuminating half her face in a hellish light. He drew his own saber instinctively, spinning it as it crackled and engaged. She danced towards him, face aglow with the wildness that came from elsewhere.  
Don’t be stupid, Scavenger.   
The girl struck first, and savagely. Their blades collided, and he pushed against it, unwilling to attack her just yet. This was a mistake. She spun the hilt of the saber over her shoulder, bringing the staff’s opposite end to meet his helmet. The viewscreen cracked and melted, obscuring his vision. He growled and Force-pushed her away from him, wrenching the helmet from his head.   
The few seconds this took almost cost him dearly. The bond barely tipped him off on her plan before she threw her weapon at him. He managed to lift one of the Praetorians in front of him, and the body took the majority of the hit, one side of the staff deeply imbedded. He reached for it—  
And she called it back to her, looking triumphant as she had on Star Killer when she’d won Anakin’s lightsaber…  
Now grinning himself, Kylo unsheathed that saber from his belt and engaged it. He advanced on the girl, crossing both blades in front of him.   
It had not been a mistake to go with the double-blade for her lightsaber, Kylo thought. She fought far more naturally with it than she had with a more traditional weapon. Despite that, despite their connection, it became clear that she was still green and he was going to win. He could feel her slow exhaustion through the bond and backed off slightly, striking less and defending more.  
“Enough.” Snoke was standing now, looking at them both with an unreadable expression on his face. He turned to Rey. “You still lack in skill, but you do not fear him. Do you?”  
She turned her face up to meet his gaze. “I do not,” she confirmed.  
“I see.” Snoke lifted his hand to the side. “But do you fear for him?” Lightening—Rey had not had much experience with the stuff, but there was no other word for it—burst out of the Supreme Leader’s hands, striking Kylo Ren in the chest. She muffled a scream behind her hands. The darkness behind the power was like nothing she’d ever felt. It made the light within her hurt.  
Kylo was on his knees now, and she could feel his consciousness starting to ebb through the bond. He was going to die. She tore at her own hair in frustration and fear. “Stop it, stop it, stop—PLEASE!” There was a muffled boom and the crackling of the lightening stopped.   
Snoke lowered the hand he had brought in front of him to protect from Rey’s attack. The force of the push had blackened the floor around him. “Oh. So you don’t boast—you can use the Dark side if properly encouraged.”   
She spat a piece of her hair out of her mouth, casting a glance at Kylo, who was now sitting up. “I told you, you need only ask.”  
The Supreme Leader smiled at her. It looked unnatural, like it had been carved there. “We shall see. Take him and get out of my sight. I need to think.” She hadn’t moved before he turned back to them.   
“Oh, and Kylo Ren?”  
He lifted his head slowly.  
“Teach her to commune. I won’t ask you again. And get those bodies out of here. I daresay they deserve to be added to your collection, since they couldn’t put up a fight.” Puzzled, Rey cast around in Kylo’s head for what collection the Supreme Leader meant. An image of a table coated in ashes came to her, a helmet resting above it…she closed her eyes, feeling sick.   
When she was sure that Snoke had gone, she cautiously approached Kylo. “Can you get up?”  
“Yes, I can get up!” He grimaced and stood, swaying slightly. She caught him under his left arm, avoiding his weak side. To her shock, he actually leaned on her.  
“Back to your cabin?”  
“Actually, medbay is probably best at this point. The cabin may not be in the best shape.” He spoke through gritted teeth.   
She closed her eyes briefly in exasperation, but made no comment. They crossed from conversation to thought without pausing as they entered the corridors.   
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here. Her anger from the previous night was beginning to lessen. She’d come very close to being trapped on the Supremacy alone, with Snoke.  
No. It’s better that you did. You’re not ready, though, for what he wants from you.  
I can be, if you would teach me what I want to know.  
“Okay.” He startled her by speaking aloud again. “Just so you know—that was impressive back there, what you did. I think you surprised him.”  
Rey ducked her head and smiled. I believe the words you are looking for are ‘thank you’.   
“Thank you, filthy Scavenger.”   
She scowled.


	20. Chapter 20

Breathe. Just breathe. What do you see?  
Light. Darkness. A balance. The memory of the girl’s voice still held her wonder.  
It’s so much bigger.  
It was, Luke thought, resting his forearms on his knees. It is. If he hadn’t been a stubborn fool, he could have taught her more. She would have been better prepared, at the very least. If he hadn’t been so—  
“Angry?” Master Yoda materialized in front of him, and Luke smiled in spite of himself.  
“Now what would give you that idea, Master?”  
The Force ghost looked at him pityingly. “Troubled you are, Luke. By things out of your control, I fear.”  
Luke shook his head irritably. “I’ve long let go of that.”  
“Specify, I didn’t.”  
“You didn’t need to, old friend.” Obi-Wan joined them, drawn by some unspoken need. “Luke, Luke…you’re still angry with your father.” Luke buried his face in his palm.  
“I am not.” He sounded like a petulant child.  
“You are. You haven’t called on any of us in quite some time, I assume because you fear calling to him as well?” Luke remained silent.   
“Afraid, he is,” murmured Yoda.  
“Of course I am!” Luke finally faced their light, squinting slightly. “Everything I have worked for was wrong. It cost me Ben, it cost me my family, my—“  
“Mara,” said Obi-Wan quietly. The three of them sat gathered in the silence for a minute.  
“You know I cannot speak with Anakin. It will draw the other.”   
“Hmm.” Yoda closed is transparent eyes. “Not the only one who speaks with the other, you are.”  
Luke gave another irritable jerk. “I know that Ben communes with him, hence his warped views. That was our fault, mine and Leia’s. We didn’t tell him, we didn’t put him on his guard—“  
“He speaks of the girl.”  
“No.” The reply came automatically to his lips. “No, that’s impossible.”  
“It’s not. She grows strong with the Force, and she will continue to reach out until she finds what she is seeking.”  
“There’s nothing to gain from seeking the Dark Side.”  
“Sure, are you?” Yoda scrutinized him. “Still wearing that crystal, you are.”  
Luke’s left hand flew to the object around his neck. The fragment of kyber crystal seemed to pulsate with its own energy. He shoved it roughly down the front of his shirt.   
“This crystal cost me dearly.”  
“Yes, it did,” Obi-Wan said seriously. “I urge you to not let it cost you anymore.”  
“It is just a remnant of a weapon—“  
“No, it is a remnant of Darth Vader’s weapon. A kyber crystal that he bled. What do you think he poured into that? What sort of power might it hold for someone seeking it?” Yoda listened intently as Obi-Wan continued.   
“Ben thinks that Snoke wants you in order to eradicate the Jedi from the galaxy. I think it has just begun to dawn on him that they might both be seeking the same thing from you.”  
“Causing friction between student and master, it is.”  
“And Rey?”  
“The girl seeks, above all, to bring the boy back. But she’s lost, and has a troubling appetite for power.”  
“Being fed by Snoke, it is.”  
Luke shook his head. “I don’t know what to do.”  
“Know, you do.”  
Again, the memory of Rey’s voice: A balance.  
He stood up, addressing both of them. “I can’t. I won’t. What I learned about my father during my time with Lor San Tekka will never leave me.” He felt his age creep up on him again. “I can forgive the jedi that he was, I can forgive the man who saved me, but I cannot reconcile those two with the evil that I learned about on that tour.”  
“They’re not separate entities, Luke.”  
“They are.” He was angry now. “If a balance is what it truly takes to fix this, we all are lost. No one can withstand the seduction of the Dark side long enough to use it for good.” He pulled away from the Force, breaking the meeting. “I’m sorry. I just can’t.”  
Yoda looked sad as he began to fade. Obi-Wan was disturbed.  
“You’re wrong, Luke. May the Force be with you.”


	21. Chapter 21

“You’re tired.” Kylo Ren didn’t open his eyes, but he turned his head towards her.  
Rey shrugged and flung herself into the bolted chair beside his medbay cot. “It wasn’t nearly this bad until I had to listen to General Hux go on about how useless and destructive we were for the better part of the evening.” She paused. “Do you have any idea how many credits worth of damage—“  
“Destruction personally offends Hux. He passed at the top of his class in simulation training, never meeting an outcome he hadn’t planned for. He’s not used to being outsmarted or outranked.”   
“Do you outrank him?”  
“Officially no, but we have equal clearance. I annoy him because he feels I didn’t have to work for it like he did.”   
Rey surveyed Kylo, taking note of the scars, old and new, that crisscrossed every visible inch of his arms and shoulders. “Seems as though that could be debated.”  
He opened one eye and she felt his amusement through the bond. “General Hux has never seen actual combat that didn’t occur in the safety of his father’s training arenas. There’s really no debate.”  
He closed his eyes again and she glanced up at the monitor. “Your vitals still don’t look great.”  
“They’ll come back up. It takes a day or so.” He turned his head away from her.  
“This has happened before?”  
Yes. He was growing sulky again.   
“What was that? Can you wield it? Can I?” Her eyes were wide. She wondered how it felt to summon that power from nowhere--   
Says the girl who can’t even swing a lightsaber.  
Now she was mad. I backed off of you, and you know it, she fired back across the bond.  
No, you backed away from the Dark side because it scared you again. Then you let me win.  
There was too much truth in this statement to ignore. She crossed her arms and muttered a curse in Huttese that she usually tried to save for special occasions. Kylo laughed into his shoulder.  
“Lord Ren.” The uniformed doctor who had tended to Rey when she first arrived on the Supremacy interrupted them. “We’re going to try another dosage of this to see if we can’t get your levels back up a little faster.” Kylo shrugged. The woman slid the loading chamber of the injector shut and glanced back at Rey. “Are you supposed to be here?”   
She fired the nano into his thigh and Rey reflexively clutched her own as the pinch echoed over the bond. The doctor’s eyes followed the movement suspiciously.   
Kylo covered the moment. “She’s fine.”   
The doctor didn’t appear to be convinced, but she wasn’t going to argue with the Enforcer. “Okay, then. As long as you didn’t bring that thing back in here.”  
Rey stuffed the porg deeper within her robes, where it was attempting to wriggle out by her neck. “Nope, not this time!” What was she supposed to do with it, leave him for the sanitation crew to sweep up with the rest of the cabin?  
“Best let him sleep then.” While not entirely convinced, she no longer looked suspicious. As soon as the officer exited the cube, the porg pushed its head out of her collar and clucked. She pulled him out and settled it in her lap, leaning back in the chair. Casually, she pushed into Kylo’s head.  
“I’m not dead yet, Scavenger, I can feel you.”  
“Sorry.” She tucked her legs underneath of her and unclipped her lightsaber from her side, putting it gently on the floor. The porg took advantage of her forward lean and hopped onto the cot, tumbling somewhere near Kylo’s feet. He didn’t immediately punt the animal off the bed, which Rey took to mean the medication was taking hold. She relaxed slightly, eyes closing in the dimmed lights…  
You were the chosen one!   
It was hot, it was so hot, and she’d never felt more angry in her life. She was standing on a molten planet, sweating. Tears evaporated from her cheeks.  
Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!  
Balance, balance, balance…the word devolved into a chant, then meaningless noise. She tried to scream, slapping her hands over her ears. Darkness enveloped her.  
I can’t kill my own father. This voice she did know, dimly, distantly. She grasped for meaning, only to find herself face to face with Han Solo, the exact Han she had lost on Star Killer. Rey wanted to scream, wanted to warn him, wanted him to stop her—he didn’t. To her horror, she thrust the lightsaber in her hand through his chest. Some chasm broke within her.  
There is another. This voice was unfamiliar, as if it came from a dream.  
Finish what I started. A menacing answer.  
Then, most frightening of all, the sinister voice of Snoke:  
“You could be the only one.”  
Ben! Rey abandoned all pretense now, dreams or not. Ben, help me!  
“Rey!” With an enormous effort, she opened her eyes. The lights in the medbay were still dimmed. Kylo Ren was staring at her. “I told you not to get in my head when I’m sleeping.” His voice was tight, angry. “You made us both vulnerable to that.”  
She blinked hard in the dim light. “D-did you see?”   
“Of course I did!” A light busted behind them, particles raining to the floor. She jumped.  
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. The image of Han seemed burned into her eyes.  
With a great deal of effort, Kylo managed to get a handle on his temper, another light blowing out behind them. “It’s okay.” He shook his head. “You scared me.”  
“Can we just—“  
“Tomorrow.”  
“But I think—“  
Kylo Ren placed his hand on her face, pressed on her consciousness, and sent her into dreamless sleep.


	22. Chapter 22

Something fluffy caught her in the chest and Rey brought her hands to it reflexively. The porg blinked, slightly dazed.  
“Hey!”  
“Welcome back. Get up. We’re leaving.” Kylo Ren was already on his feet, forcing his long fingers through the ends of his arm guards. Multiple wireless sensor pods clattered to the floor as he picked them off of his skin, irritably flinging them across the room. He looked at her, giving no sign he remembered their shared dream the night before. “Now.”  
“I don’t want to?” It was meant to be a statement, but came out like a question.   
“Yes, you do.” He tugged on his gloves.  
She spoke again. “You don’t want to.”  
This earned her another withering glare. “Are you trying to influence me, Scavenger?”  
Rey flipped up the collar of her jacket and holstered her lightsaber securely on her belt. “Oh, no,” she said lightly. “Merely reading your mind.”  
Kylo fastened the clasp of a cloak around his shoulders. “It would be in your best interest to keep that to yourself.”  
“Maybe I won’t.” She rounded the bed until she was close enough to spit in his face. “You don’t want to go where we are going, and I want to know why. I want to know who those people were last night, and why they are in your head and consequentially mine.” She drew closer still and Ren didn’t flinch. “And I want to know what kind of monster relives murdering his father every night and gets up in the morning like it didn’t happen.”  
His hand went to his lightsaber and she immediately held hers out to the side, thumb lingering over the button. “Do it, Lord Ren. I’ll kill you myself, I swear it.”  
Kylo leaned down until their foreheads were nearly touching. “How ignorant to think that all of that came from me. The bond goes both ways, don’t forget, Scavenger.” He whispered. “Now where would you have learned the voice of my grandfather?”  
“Sir?”  
Three stormtroopers and a lieutenant stood in the doorway, all clearly uneasy. Kylo and Rey sprang apart from each other. The sudden movement made the quartet of military flinch.  
Kylo looked murderous. “Can I help you, Mitaka?”  
The officer was braver than Rey would have initially given him credit for, stepping forward with almost no hesitation. “No, sir. Just letting you know that we are ready to board.”  
“I will be there momentarily. Tell General Hux that he can—“  
“Tell him we will be there as soon as possible.” Rey cut Kylo off, mood newly soured by the realization that this was going to be a long trip, with officials.  
Mitaka looked nervously from Rey and back to Kylo Ren. “Right. Momentarily.” He left with his soldiers, sparing her another confused glance.   
Rey smoothed her hair back into one bun at the top of her head, letting the rest of the length lay loose against her collar. “So.”  
“So.” He approached her again, stretching out his arm. She caught his wrist in both hands. He glared at her before releasing the porg feather he’d pulled out of her hair, splaying his fingers in mock surrender. She blushed and released him, embarrassed by her own fear.  
“Get on this ship for me, without causing problems, and we will talk. I will tell you about my family, about the voices, anything you want.”  
“If?” She knew this was coming.  
“If you tell me what I want to know. We’re both hiding things from each other right now.”  
There was no metallic tang over the bond; they both knew this was true. Even now, Rey could feel the mental blockades she had so carefully constructed after the attack on the resistance base. Kylo Ren’s, she knew, were even stronger.   
“I need you to work with me, Rey.” His face was pleading, melting rapidly from anger to something else. It was unnerving, his mood swings, like watching some reptilian creature shed its skin.  
She evaluated him, pursing her lips. Nothing in his head belied a trap. Use him, said the creature from within. For once, she didn’t send the voice away.  
“Okay.”  
Finalizer boarding. Preparing for departure. Kylo’s commlink repeated the phrase twice more.  
“That would be us.”  
Rey froze. “We’re taking the Finalizer?”  
“Yes,” Kylo said, prodding her in the back. “And this time, you’re getting on it conscious.”  
“Lucky me.”  
***  
The snow felt so good, Kylo thought, and then: I’m delirious. He was flat on his back, gazing into the dusted treetops on Star Killer base. The girl had left him here—the girl, the kriffing girl—and he wasn’t sure what had happened. She had been going for the kill, he was certain, he’d felt it. For some reason—maybe she finally felt the tenuous thing between them that he’d discovered—she’d pulled back at the last second. She was pretty, like an ancient priestess, or maybe an…angel? Was that the word? He felt like he’d heard it before.  
It didn’t matter…he was going to die here. He thought about his father’s body, somewhere far away now. Wasn’t it funny, he thought, that after all that they’d die on the same day? Blood burst from his lips as he laughed out loud. He wished dying didn’t hurt so much; his master had been right on that count. It made you weak. It meant you were stupid.  
The planet trembled beneath him, shaking more snow onto his face. He closed his eyes.  
“I’ve got him!”   
A trooper’s modulated voice cut through the dimming grey light. “General Hux, sir, I’ve got him!”  
“Is he breathing?”  
Someone moved close to him, leaned in. “Yes, sir, but we’ve got to get him on the ship, it’s bad.” Bad, Ren thought with amusement. That means I’m dead and you don’t want to tell General Hux, kid.   
“Oh, kriffing hell.” Kylo opened his eyes to find General Hux kneeling in the snow next to him. “Ren, I need you to get up. We have to get off this planet now, do you understand me?”  
Kylo coughed up another round of blood. He thought it seemed thicker this time. “Forget it. I lost the girl…my master will be displeased…”  
“Your master is waiting on your pathetic carcass.” Hux gestured to the stormtrooper. “Get him on that ship!”  
He was jerked roughly to his feet. Every dragging step was pain—he almost blacked out several times. Once onboard, someone threw him on a table and he felt the ship pick up speed as it took off. There was a muffled boom.  
Not with dad, then, he thought. Mom…did they kill mom?  
“Medic now!” Hux was standing close and yelling, too loud. Something cut through his robes, exposing his left side. Kylo was breathing shallowly now, and with every short burst, another wave of warm blood drenched his clothes. Above him, someone cursed.  
“Can you save him?”  
Kylo paused his thoughts. Didn’t they know he was already dead?  
“I’m going to try.” Rough hands grabbed his face, pulling his chin forward. “I don’t hold much with your brand of witchcraft, Lord Ren, but you need to pull out anything you’ve got right now or you’re going to die on my table.” His eyes felt heavy, but he managed to nod. “What kind of weapon did this?”  
“It’s a…bow. Modified blaster…might be unique…” Hands were pulling at his side again, and he felt he pricks of nano guns. He coughed and more blood washed over the table. The doctor cursed a second time.  
“Of course it is.”  
“You can blow up a ship with something of that caliber.” One of the surviving officers sounded impressed.  
“A small ship.” Even with the Enforcer on the brink of death, the trooper’s resentment was evident.  
Kylo closed his eyes, attempting to focus on the Force, on anything that could slow his pounding, traitorous heart that was going to bleed him to death. He was losing, he could feel it…  
Across the galaxy, someone pulled hard on the connection he had discovered.  
Hours later, General Hux knelt beside him in the medbay of the Finalizer, shaking his head. “Completely destroyed. We’ll be lucky if he lets any of us live after this—my career will never recover.”  
“You’ll live, General.” Kylo was trying very hard not to move. Everything hurt, even his bacta-layered face.  
Hux laughed, almost hysterical. “We’ll see.” He paused. “I wasn’t sure you were going to.”  
“Hmm.”   
“Who did this to you, Ren? That girl, the resistance scum?”  
He was drifting off again. “Rey.”  
“What?”  
“Her name is Rey.”  
***  
The two of them stood together in the main hanger of the Finalizer, sharing the memory. Rey was uncomfortably aware of the proximity of the shuttle where Kylo had nearly bled to death from wounds she had exacerbated. She could almost smell the rust of phantom blood on the floor. Officers and stormtroopers stood at parade rest around them, waiting for someone to take to the platform ahead.  
Kylo was well aware of the girl’s displeasure with their current company. She was standing slightly behind him, close enough that he could feel her breath on his shoulder. This was a feint, he knew—the scavenger did not cower behind anyone—but he appreciated the illusion of trust between them. Better that everyone on board think that she was timid; it might take the sport out of revenge killing her in deep space.  
Might. He only needed to reach out several feet to feel the hostility the battalion nursed towards her. Nearly everyone had left someone back on Star Killer, and those who hadn’t lost people had their pride mortally wounded. Few things were more dangerous, he mused, than humiliation.   
It had been easier to keep her away from this on the Finalizer, with rank and station separating them from the majority of the population. This ship, while still large, was much smaller than the main base and caged animals would fight. There was also the problem of—  
Rey hissed. Two droids moved aside near the back of the hanger to open the doors. Seven figures in black strode in, each lovingly caressing a weapon. Their gaits were odd, animalistic—each seemed to be on the verge of sinking into a crouch. The assembled troops and officers gave them a wide berth as they lined up against the wall. One of the figures pulled off its ghastly mask, revealing the bright red skin of a Zabrak male. His yellow eyes moved from his master to Rey, disgust curling his lip.  
None of this passed beneath Kylo’s notice and Rey felt his anger trickle down the bond. He reached behind his back and grabbed her wrist, pulling her closer to him, ever so slightly bringing his shoulders around to block her from view. This was a mistake, Rey knew at once. The Zabrak’s expression slid from irritation to shrewd thought before ending in a rapacious smile at his master’s defensive position. He nodded deferentially at Kylo before sliding back into line and replacing his mask. He turned to say something to his comrade, a figure in a death’s head mask that Rey was almost certain was female. The skull leaned around to look at her.  
“Do not engage with them.” He barely had to incline his head for her to hear him.  
You did.  
Yes. Because they are mine.  
I thought that ‘the First Order does not condone slavery’. In her head, she managed to mock a previous conversation with General Hux with ease.  
It’s not the same and you know it.  
She huffed, annoyed, and tried to step away from him. He held her hand firmly beneath his cape. Don’t do that just yet.  
This is why you didn’t want to go.  
Will you shut up and let me—  
“Welcome, friends.” General Hux had finally mounted the platform, escorted by Captain Phasma. Rey wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Today, we move forward from our tragedy on Star Killer base to a glorious new project. From our ashes, the Supreme Leader has gifted us with a chance at redemption—a chance at revenge.” He gave a wicked smile and several of the surrounding soldiers thumped their chest plates in support.   
Rey felt sick. Kylo… He ignored her.  
“We journey today to a planet that I’m hoping you are up to the challenge of clearing out to bring order to a galaxy in turmoil.” A BB unit rolled on to the stage, this one chromed in black. It slid its flat head to the side as it projected an image of a huge planet above them. “This is Galyianen. It is a swampy blue planet that is currently—“  
Not for long, Rey thought grimly as the image spun.  
“—host to several hundred species that shouldn’t trouble us. Our immediate goal is to establish our foothold here with what we hope are welcoming natives.” Several of the higher officers grinned conspiratorially at each other, as if they all knew what a joke that was. “Once we have established the base I will let you know the full scope of what we plan to do there. As of right now—dismissed to your commanding officers.” Rey flinched as hundreds of stormtroopers brought their fists up in a salute and began to move.


	23. Chapter 23

“Let’s go.” Kylo tugged on her hand again, and she attempted to wrench it back. He didn’t yield one inch of his grip. Her thoughts slid to the first person to hold her hand and she felt a pang of loss. Where was Finn now? Did he hate her?  
“We have a larger issue at hand,” Kylo hissed, aware of her preoccupation. He was attempting to pull her through the swelling crowd, anxiousness flickering on his end of the bond. They didn’t move quickly enough. The knights of Ren accosted them as rounded the end of a corridor. Six of the seven sunk to one knee, even the Zabrak male who had openly challenged them earlier. The one still standing removed its skull mask.  
Rey had been right to suspect that this one was female. The woman had vestiges of Zabrak ancestry—her pale skin was littered with iridescent tattoos, the cheekbones sharp and severe. On another world, she may have been called beautiful, but here the effect was frightening. This impression only grew when she opened her mouth and smiled, revealing pointed teeth.  
“Master. It’s good to see you after so long.” Her irises were red. Rey found herself thinking of savages, blood-drinkers.  
“Talin.” Kylo gave her an appraising look. “I thought I had asked you all to go immediately to your quarters after the meeting.”  
Her pointed smile didn’t flicker. “So you did. But we were curious…”  
On her immediate right, the Zabrak knight rose, removing his hood. “We’ve been hearing strange rumors, master. About the girl in the company of the Jedi Killer.” His eyes lingered on Rey. “I see that they were not unfounded.”  
Kylo released her hand inconspicuously. “Lady Rey, honored guest of Supreme Leader Snoke.” He sounded disdainful, almost bored. The others rose together.  
“Lady Rey, Lord Ren.” One of the men in the back of the group hissed through a modulator. “How nice to live in such high regard.”  
“Enough, Uric,” Talin snapped. The knight immediately fell back. Talin must be the leader then, Rey mused.  
Second in command, yes, Ren murmured through the bond. He spoke aloud, addressing the rest of them. “Talin, Uric, Chias (the Zabrak nodded), Vasch, Alcina (another female figure), and Qyn.” The last few barely shifted in response to their names, and none of them removed their masks. “The knights of Ren.”  
Rey said nothing. She had seen these people at work once before, and it had been brutal. Hatred for the lot of them threatened to consume her. Talin smiled as if she too could read Rey’s thoughts.  
“We’re off now, master. I’m sure you have a lot on your mind.” She smiled threateningly at Rey again, exposing her bladed teeth. The rest of the knights fell into line behind her. Kylo caught the one in the back by the shoulder.   
“I’ll send him on in a moment,” Kylo said in answer to Talin’s questioning look. She shrugged and continued away from them. Rey exhaled, relaxing for the first time all morning. That brief moment of peace was abruptly shattered when Kylo crushed the knight in his arms.  
“Hey, hey! Put him down, stop it!” She smacked at Kylo’s wrist but he ignored her. Both men started laughing. She paused, utterly lost.  
“I’m not killing him, Scavenger, relax.” He looked younger than she’d ever seen him, smiling and…happy? “This is Qyn.” He pulled the helmet off the shorter man that he still had not let go of.  
No, not a man—a boy. A boy who looked at least three years younger than her…he couldn’t be more than 15 or 16. A boy who looked just like—  
“Ben,” she breathed. “Ben is this—is this?”  
The boy stared at her. “She knows your name?”  
Rey stared shamelessly, opening and closing her mouth. His hair was lighter than Kylo’s, a dusty brown, but there was no mistaking those big brown eyes. She reached a hand out, hesitated, then touched the boy’s proud cheekbone. He looked at Kylo nervously.  
“Is she okay?”  
“She’s fine.” Rey slightly ruined this statement by brushing a tear off her cheek. Kylo watched her carefully. “Why don’t you run and catch up with them. I’ll see you later at training, okay?”  
“Okay.” The knight seemed happy to escape this conversation, nearly running down the corridor. He turned back to nod his head at Kylo. “Master.” He disappeared around the corner.  
Rey was still gaping after him, and didn’t manage to shut her mouth until Kylo had steered her into a cabin. She fell into a chair, still shaking. Once when she was twelve, she’d fallen about 8 meters from the top of a wrecked x-wing, landing hard on her back. She’d lain in the sand for what felt like years before she recovered enough breath to drag herself back to camp. Injury or not, she hadn’t eaten that night…this felt similar.  
Ben swam before her vision, looking at her seriously. He thrust a cup into her hand. “Drink.”  
She brought the drink to her lips and chugged. Whatever was in the glass made her gasp and sputter and burned all the way down. He put his finger at the bottom of the cup and tipped it up again when she tried to push it away. The second gulp was easier, and it made her feel a little better.  
“I didn’t expect you to recognize him so easily.” He looked just like her.  
“What’s his name?” Her voice sounded far away.  
“Anakin.”   
“Qyn.” She almost laughed. “How old?”  
“Fifteen.” He heard her next question before she could voice it. “They think he’s dead.”  
She brought the drink to her lips again. Another Solo…another Skywalker.  
He pulled the cup out of her hands. “I cannot stress how much I need you to keep this a secret for me. It has cost me a lot to get this far with him. He doesn’t even know.”  
She was crying again. “Is he…like us?”  
“Most of the knights are Force sensitive, but none as powerful as us. He’s strong, but I’ve kept that from him.”   
“So that Snoke won’t—“  
“Yes.” He leaned over the chair. “Rey, I showed you this because I know you don’t trust me. I don’t trust you. But we’re going to have to trust each other now.” He was pulling on the bond. “You trusted me enough to take you from Skywalker. I need you to trust me to teach you to protect yourself. Can you do that?”  
She blinked at him. Rey couldn’t reconcile this pleading boy, who saved and hid children and spoke to the light, with the monster that destroyed galaxies and murdered with abandon. The divide between Ben and Kylo Ren frightened her, more so because she knew they walked the same path. She could feel the pull to the dark side even now, responding to the tumult of emotions within her.   
“I know what you think of me, and I swear it’s not all true.” His voice was lower now, husky. She placed her palm over the right side of his face, hiding the scar. Ben, Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren, Ben. The image of Darth Vader’s Force ghost stuck out in her memory, shifting fluidly from twisted corpse to Anakin Skywalker. Two disparate pieces of the same person…  
“Okay, Ben. Teach me.”


	24. Chapter 24

Amilyn’s hand came down hard on the table. “A stormtrooper, Leia? Do you have any idea what kind of training those people go through now?” She glared at the holo screen where they were looking over Finn’s medical files. “It’s a miracle he managed to even slightly shake off the brainwashing.” She shook her head, beating her purple buns against her ears. “I can’t trust him. I won’t authorize it.”  
“Amilyn, listen to reason. Who else could possibly infiltrate their stronghold? It has to be Finn. There’s a culture, a hierarchy there that we don’t have time to teach to someone else.” Leia was doing her utmost to stay calm, but her temper was dancing at the edges of her restraint.  
“They torture those kids! I’m not convinced that being back there won’t activate whatever programming—“  
“He’s not a droid, Amilyn.” She jabbed a finger at the screen. “There’s nothing there. No alterations, no chips, nothing. The choices he’s making are his own.”  
The admiral huffed and tapped her bright fingernails against the desk. “I don’t know, Leia. I’ve got my own people to think about and protect.”  
“We are protecting the same people!”  
“Are we, Leia?” Amilyn looked sad. “I wish you had told me about Ben.”  
Leia slowly rolled her blaster between her palms. “It’s a long story.”  
“It’s an important one. I thought you would have learned this when the news about your father broke to the senate all those years ago.” They both had been there the day that Bail Organa’s voice, recorded in a stolen memory box from Leia’s childhood, had unwittingly told the entire senate about the true nature of her parentage. The fallout had been catastrophic.   
“That was the last time I spoke to Ben before…” She closed her eyes and turned her head away from Amilyn, composing herself.  
“Ah.” She gently took the blaster from Leia and gathered her hands in her own. “I thought you lost them both in the attack.” Leia shook her head, allowing her thoughts to wander towards a dangerous place. She felt so guilty, remembering her fallen son more clearly than her baby. She’d had more time with Ben, she usually reasoned with herself. Ben had grown up; Anakin would remain forever swathed in his infancy.   
How lucky she had felt, 38 but not yet too old to carry another child. Han had been ecstatic, more so than he’d been with Ben—he had been so nervous for their first one. Even Ben, in the throes of his dark teenage moodiness, had smiled brightly when she’d whispered the news to him over the comm. Whatever burgeoning darkness had lingered on the horizon seemed diminished in the glow of this new hope, this tiny baby so strong with the Force, just as Ben had been.  
She’d never thought to fear the new Jedi temple. To fear her own son.  
“Han and I couldn’t have survived it together. I couldn’t look at him without thinking of the one we lost, and I think he blamed me for Ben.” She smiled ruefully. “He was right, you know? I was the one with a horrible temper and the Sith lord father. What did I expect to produce?”  
“Leia, you couldn’t have known that.” Her friend’s voice was soft.  
“I did know. Ben was so strong with the Force, even in the womb; I could feel the light that radiated from him. But I also felt the shadow.” She shook her head. “I tried to listen to what Luke had to say about our father, believe in his remorse. I gave the baby his name!” She lowered her pitch. “That will never change the fact that the only time I met my father was when he was torturing me. He tossed me away that day for execution, never realizing that he’d crossed paths with his daughter.”   
She broke off before continuing. “I want to believe what my brother does, but I only have my own understanding to lean on. When the news broke to the senate, you saw what they automatically assumed about me—and they were partially right.” Amilyn was listening intently. “I never desired ruling power, but power calls to me all the same. I am strong with the Force, but I fear it, the dark side’s appetite for my anger.”  
She blinked slowly, heady with the Force. “I passed that onto my son and I didn’t help him. I’m responsible for so much death—I killed my own family with my passiveness.”  
“Leia…”  
“So please, Amilyn, hear me when I ask you to help me do this. Send Finn, let me try to make amends one more time—let me have the chance at replacing one piece of what was lost.”  
Amilyn looked horrified on her behalf, but she recovered herself quickly. “Okay, we’ll send the stormtrooper. But he has to take one of my people with him.” She tapped her bright lips. “Rose. I’ll send Rose with him.”   
“Thank you.” Leia hugged her friend. “You can trust him, I swear it.”  
“We shall see.” Amilyn tossed Leia’s blaster to her. “Best not leave that lying around, particularly in a place like this where intoxicants are free-flowing.”  
Leia smiled and holstered the weapon. The door slid open at her approach, opening to the dull roar of the casino.  
“Leia?”  
She paused. Amilyn swallowed audibly. “On the off-chance this is successful and we do get him to come back here—I can’t promise that the resistance won’t be screaming for the execution of Kylo Ren.”  
Leia didn’t turn. “I didn’t ask you to promise me that. I only asked you to bring him back.”


	25. Chapter 25

“This is going to kill me, grandfather.”  
“Only if you allow it to.” The modulated voice of Darth Vader spoke softly in his ear. The Force ghost leaned over his shoulder. “You desire to protect the girl?”  
“More than anything.” The words surprised him even as they left his lips. He hadn’t known it to be true until he’d spoken aloud.  
“Then you must use what I’ve shown you. You shy away from it, I can feel you doing it even now.” Phantom hands grasped his shoulders. “Do you see it?”  
Red. Pain. Fire. Power. “Yes,” he breathed.  
“Reach out. Take it.” Kylo took a shuddering breath and reached towards the darkness. The power that he touched with his grandfather indescribable. He threw back his head, manic with happiness at his own invincibility. Force lightening crackled around his fingertips.  
The power rescinded itself suddenly, leaving him feeling empty. “Still not strong enough to hold it on your own, I see.”   
Kylo clenched his jaw. “I am.”  
“Then show me.” This time the power did not come as willingly, but he managed to hold on to it. He reproduced the Force lightening with great effort.  
“So very close, Kylo Ren. The time is near.”  
“I need the crystal.”  
“Yes.”  
Kylo bowed his head. “You know what my master will ask of me—and Rey—if I get close enough to obtain the kyber.”  
“Your master seeks the crystal as well.”  
He opened his eyes. “You lie!”  
“I do not.” The figure of Darth Vader moved around to rest in front of him. Odd snapping and knocking noises accompanied the movement of his ruined Force ghost. “Very soon you will have to choose your own path.”  
“I cannot betray my master.” His resolve sounded weak.  
“I did. Twice. Once for an apprentice—“  
“Star Killer,” Kylo mumbled. The young Force user had not lasted long once Palpatine became aware of his presence. Too young, too disposable—and ultimately too good to keep himself alive. How provincial that the wasted base had borne his name.  
“—and once for love.”  
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, unwilling to talk about his family.  
“How interesting that, for you, the two may intertwine.” Kylo cracked his neck, irritated by the implication. Vader’s ghost was slowly dimming.   
“I have to go. But please, Ben, consider: What good is absolute power if one must always kneel?” The image faded away and he was left alone in the dark, considering the unwelcome information about his master. This was something that must be handled delicately.   
He felt Rey before he heard he heard her outside the door. She’d been exceptionally quiet since he’d revealed Qyn’s existence, and he’d taken advantage of the silence. In truth, he’d really just been avoiding meeting with the knights. His trials with them, once a huge point of pride, were not something he cared to relive in his current state. Still, they couldn’t be left with Talin for what Snoke requested of them. He sighed and got to his feet just as Rey knocked on the door.  
“I’m coming.”  
He slid the door open to find the girl peering at him keenly. “I thought I felt—are you okay?”  
“Fine.” He flipped up his hood, immensely grateful that she had not challenged him—for once. He cocked one eyebrow, another habit he’d inherited from his father. “You don’t have to come. In fact, I’d rather you didn’t if you can’t control yourself around Qyn and the others. I’m sure you’ve noticed that they’re looking to pick a fight with you.”  
She frowned, slightly lifting her nose in the air. “I’ll be fine. I’m extremely curious to learn about the dynamics of this group.” It didn’t escape his notice that she’d changed back into sparring clothes, slinging her saber holster around her narrow hips. For a second, he saw her as they must: tiny, fragile, and young. Unease kneaded his stomach. Rey scowled, palming one of her hair buns. “I’m fine.”  
“On your own head be it, then.” He led her through the quiet corridors, his mind preoccupied with the auras of his knights. The panel to the training facility hummed with quiet blue light as he pressed his hand against it. The girl stepped smartly in front of him before entering the room. Kylo gritted his teeth, knowing the bold move would not be missed by the rest of the group.  
This training center, while smaller than the one on the Supremacy, was generally preferred by anyone who used both of them regularly. It was equipped with simulation chambers, sparring rings, and even a firing range. It was here that Kylo had perfected the ability to stop blaster bolts, triumphant and trembling with exhaustion. Picking up on that thought, Rey turned towards the range with renewed interest. “Absolutely not,” he hissed.  
A small squadron of storm troopers were running combat drills with their captain in one of the simulation chambers. Muffled booms and flashes of light briefly illuminated their white uniforms. The knights of Ren had gathered in the sparring ring on the far left, where Alcina and Chias were currently dueling. They didn’t break pace as Rey and Kylo approached, only growing more vicious in their fight. Rey leaned against the railing, eyes flashing back and forth between the two.  
Who will win? Kylo never looked away from the scuffle, but Rey recognized it as an actual question, and not errant thought.  
Alcina. They both watched as the Twi’lek female made a ferocious thrust at Chias with two lightsabers. He blocked them, just barely, his usual smirk descending into a snarl.  
Why?  
Because…because she’s using a backwards stance. Her attacks are more intricate because of it, making her a little slower. She knows it too, and she uses it to pace herself. The Zabrak—  
Chias.  
Yes, Chias, isn’t pacing himself, just using brute force. He’ll tire more quickly, and get ensnared in one of her countermoves.  
Kylo was impressed. The scavenger saw a lot. However—  
You would be right, if everyone believed in a fair fight. Alcina will win this match, because they’re not fighting to kill. Another clash of lightsabers threw sparks, seemingly in challenge of that statement. If they were, Chias would probably destroy her. Just a bit of rage can fuel the danger behind brute force.  
You don’t teach your students to fight honorably.  
He almost snorted. I taught them to stay alive. The match ended when, just as Rey had predicted, Chias faltered at the wrong moment, allowing his opponent to thrust her blade into his right shoulder. The knight cursed, holstering his saber and moving towards the edge of the ring, massaging his singed skin. The other Zabrak, Talin, practically growled at Alcina, managing to show every one of her pointed teeth as she hissed something unintelligible.   
“Family?”  
Kylo nodded. “Brother and sister. So few of their species are left, most families are interconnected now. You rarely find couples anymore; they’re all the last of a line.”  
Without meaning to, Rey turned her gaze on Qyn, who was leaning on the opposite edge of the ring. To her surprise, he was looking right back at her, his expression challenging and somewhat frustrated. Kylo shifted beside her and the boy dropped his gaze, letting his brown hair swing forward to shield his face. It was nearly as long as his brother’s.  
I can’t believe no one has recognized— She looked at Qyn again. He was nearly as tall as Kylo, although still in the lanky stages of adolescence, with his aristocratic cheekbones. All of that could be written off as coincidence, if not for those damning eyes. Leia Organa could be blinking at her.  
No one would believe it if they did. You mangling my face helped a lot as well. Not to mention he was always prettier than I was. His mother thought he might have looked like his grandmother Amidala, in what little we could recover on her. He allowed Rey briefly into a memory of a holo vid of a regal looking woman addressing the senate. She had Qyn’s brown curls and distinctive mouth. Of course, I’m the only one who got to see that.  
Your mother. Your grandmother.  
Not anymore.  
She opened her mouth to argue, but Kylo was spared that thanks to the distraction of Talin lobbing a practice blade at Rey’s face. She thrust her hand in front of her at shoulder height, stopping the blade mid-air, where it quivered from the impact of the Force. Mildly impressed, he thought maybe he would let her try herself in the shooting range after all.   
Talin laughed. “So she is strong with the Force. You’ll forgive me master, I was just curious.”  
He smirked. “Of course.” Anger, heady and hot, filled his system, stirring the sleeping beast within. “Fight me, Talin.” The woman’s face fell, only for a moment, but the fear was there. Excellent.  
“Of course.”  
Kylo rolled his neck lazily and entered the ring.  
***  
He put Talin in the medbay, and then Uric, before he calmed down enough to leave the ring. Despite the misgivings he’d been having, it felt good to use the Dark side, to call and hear it answer. Still breathing heavily, he surveyed the room. Vasch and Chias had slunk away to the simulation chamber, muttering darkly about their friends, and were now out of sight. Rey was working with Alcina on the adjacent sparring mat, looking happier than he’d seen her in days and blissfully unaware of his carnage.  
“Was that completely necessary?” Qyn materialized beside him, tossing him a hydropack. Kylo cracked the capsule and forced down the revolting gel before answering.  
“They get out of control when I’m not with them all the time. A little humility is good for them.”  
“I thought you were going to kill Uric for a second there.”  
“I thought about it.” He tried to keep his tone light, but the truth of the statement was evident.  
The younger boy studied him closely. “Will you walk with me?”  
“Of course.” They left the training center quietly, heads bowed beneath their hoods. Kylo kept a tenuous hold on Rey’s thoughts, afraid one of them might try to take advantage of his absence. No fear or even nervousness came across the bond, and he relaxed. Qyn waited until they’d gotten back to his quarters to speak.  
“I wanna stay with you this time.” Deprived of the formal education Ben had been given, Qyn had adopted an Outer Rim accent that was prone to displaying itself when he was earnest or excited. It lengthened his vowels and molded multiple words in a way that contrasted starkly with his own slow articulation.   
“Qyn. You know why we can’t do that.”  
The glass Rey had drank from earlier shattered against the wall. “No, I don’t.”  
“You think a tantrum is going to get you your way?” He Force-lifted the shards and guided them to the garbage shoot.  
“I don’t know. If you listen to the higher-ups here, it seems to work for you, Lord Ren.”  
He ignored the jab, well aware that his temper was famous. “You’re getting stronger.”  
“Yeah, I am, with my master nowhere to be found.” Kylo bit down on his tongue, drawing blood.   
“I can’t be with you all the time, Qyn.”  
“You’re not with me ever.” His lighted on Rey’s cloak, which she had flung over a chair when they’d left. “Because you’ve already chosen someone else to train.”  
“It was the Supreme Leader’s wish. She is strong with the Force.”  
“I’M strong with the Force.” Kylo backhanded his brother, catching him in the mouth. He could smell the blood before he pulled his hand away.   
“If you have any desire to live at all, you will never say that out loud again.”   
Anakin glared at him, blood trickling towards his chin. Kylo was reminded strongly of their father. “Then teach me why. Teach me, Ben, please.” He widened his eyes.  
Aware of the change in emotion, Rey tugged on the bond questioningly. He attempted to send some kind of reassurance to keep her away from them.  
“Who is she to you?”  
“The girl? No one. A scavenger who was picked up by the resistance.”  
“You’re a kriffing liar. I can feel it in the Force. There’s something weird between you two. You orient yourselves around each other constantly, like magnets. Even now you’ve got your head tilted towards the training center like you can…like you can hear her.” A wave of realization washed over his face. “You have a Force bond.”  
Kylo could feel himself pale. “Yes.”  
“That’s why you don’t want me.” Anakin’s busted lip quivered, and he bit it to hide the movement. “Do you love her, Ben?”  
“No.” He knew acrid taste of a lie and was horrified at himself. In his head, General Hux’s voice from weeks ago: Oh, Ren, you are in trouble. His master’s accusations of compassion, Rey’s visions, his wild anger and defensiveness. Even his grandfather knew the truth.  
His brother was gaping at him. “Kriffing hell Ben, you can see it all over your face.”  
“I can’t—“ He felt sick. The Force swam uneasily around him, dark and restless.   
“But you do.” The boy smirked, mopping his face on his shirt. “It’s surprisingly satisfying to see that you are still human, Master of the Knights of Ren.”   
“I didn’t intend…” He sighed. “I’ll train you, Qyn. When Talin recovers, I’ll tell her that I’m going to prepare you for your own trial.”   
Anakin brightened. “Really?”  
“Yes. But please, Qyn, we can’t let anyone find out about this.” He rubbed his temple. “Any of it.”  
Qyn grabbed his brother’s shoulders. “I understand more than you think Ben. I think our parents would be happy that you’re still capable of this. That we’re together now.” His comm chimed. “I guess I’ve got to go.”  
He slid out the doors gleefully, leaving Kylo Ren stricken in his cabin.


	26. Chapter 26

With Alcina and the others called away, Rey was left alone in the training center, completely spent. She cracked a hydropack tube and downed the gel smoothly, thinking about how useful these little packs would be on a planet like Jakkku. It surprised her to realize that she missed the warmth of the place, and the feel of real solid ground beneath her feet. Maybe she just missed having a sun; the artificial cycles aboard ships and stations didn’t make up for natural light.  
Not that there was much light left anywhere.  
She glanced at herself in the mirrored walls of the center. Her dark hair was matted to her temples where it had escaped her buns. She looked flushed and triumphant. Her body liked fighting, was good at it even. The thing inside her forced a smile to her lips. Without thinking, she engaged her saber, spinning it lazily in front of her. Shadows danced across her face.  
It didn’t scare me enough then. It does now. Luke Skywalker’s voice carried menacingly through her memory. Had she become what he was afraid of that day on Ahch-To? She didn’t think so, despite the darkness that often enveloped her. Kylo had saved her from that the day she bled her crystals…why?  
And why had no one come for her? She’d felt nothing, heard nothing, since she left. Perhaps they had written her off. Fallen, gone. One of them. Left behind, like that little girl on Jakku.  
She didn’t believe that, not really. General Organa must know what Rey intended by being here. Must want her to succeed. Her lightsaber hissed as she disengaged it, clipping it back to her belt so that she could press the heels of her hands to her eyes. She didn’t know how to save him anymore. Some days were okay. Some days she felt like she was heaving on the bond to keep him from falling over some great precipice.   
Some days she wanted to fall with him.  
“There you are!” The voice made her jump, roused from her musings. General Hux was standing in the doorway, looking put out. He’d dispensed with his usual escort, which Rey took to mean he was in a hurry. “Well, come! I need your help with something.” He left without looking back. She sighed and followed him, not entirely surprised when they stopped in front of Kylo Ren’s quarters.  
“Deal with that. I do not have the time for this anymore.” Hux waved his hand at the door, from which muffled crashes emanated. He punched the override code into the door panel. “Enjoy.”  
Rey only spared him a dark look before going in. The main room was surprisingly intact and clean. Which meant—she eyed the door to his bedroom apprehensively. As if sensing her gaze, the door trembled on its bearings. She reached out towards the bond, but only felt blind anger. He was blocking her.  
She kicked the door and jumped back out of range of whatever he was using for this latest bout of destruction. “Kylo.”  
“Get away from here.” His voice was unnervingly calm.   
“No, I won’t.” Now she was annoyed. “Open the damn door.” There was no response. Irritated, she ripped the panel cover off the lock and tugged at a few wires. The door slid open.  
“You shouldn’t be here.” Pieces of the ceiling insulation were gently floating to the floor around him. The mirrored wall panel had shattered, and there were fragments of what once was his helmet all over the tiles. None of that was as bad as the damage he had done to himself. Blood dripped slowly from his right hand and when he turned to face her, she gasped.  
Kylo Ren had ripped open his scar, exposing the bacta-netting underneath. It made the wound look worse as it revealed its depth. There was no replacing burned tissue. She’d done that. She’d done that to him.  
“Please leave.” There was no real hope in his tone now.   
“No.” She stepped carefully around the mess on the floor, trying to avoid impaling her feet. “I was under the impression that you were going to explain some things to me tonight. You might have noticed how nicely I got on this ship.” Having successfully maneuvered the mess, she grabbed his wrist and gently peeled back the glove. Gaping cuts where the knuckles had split bled steadily, but it was nothing unmanageable. Ben studied her face while she looked at his hand. “You need some bacta.”  
Afraid that he was approaching one of his catatonic fits, Rey was relieved when he muttered, “In the refresher.”   
“Why don’t you go to my room before you get shrapnel imbedded in your knuckles?” She’d almost suggested that he sit at the comm panel, but couldn’t stomach the thought of Hux’s satisfaction if he happened to walk through the main door. Kylo mutely followed her instruction, eyes focused on the ceiling above them.   
The bacta kit was, thankfully, mounted to the refresher wall and completely stocked. Rey flipped it open and pulled out a tiny jar and some of the bandaging. She didn’t have much experience with bacta. The stuff was too expensive for anyone on Jakku to bother with. Basically, you wrapped your wounds and prayed you didn’t die. But here, it was commonplace.  
“Prayed you didn’t die, huh?” He was sitting on the edge of her bed, holding his battered hand at shoulder height. “I never thought about not having something as basic as bacta.”  
“How wonderful to be such a prince.” Something shifted in his expression that made Rey think she’d touched a nerve. She changed course. “How is it you’re in my head but I can’t hear you?”  
He unwound his armguard up to his elbow, exposing the scars underneath. “Because I’m shielding and you’re not.”   
“Hmph.” She twisted the cap off the bacta and wrinkled her nose at the scent. “Stop doing it.”  
“If I stop, you will feel my pain.” He wasn’t wrong. The time they spent together had increased the sensitivity of their bond. Rey was certain she’d feel it if he so much as stubbed his toe.  
“I think I’ll be okay.” Unbidden, a memory came to her of Han Solo on Takodana.  
I think I can handle myself. His look of impressed incredulity.   
Kylo winced and looked away from her. Rey swallowed back the confusing mixture of emotions that the thought of Han Solo stirred within her. Anguish at the loss of a father figure. Frustration that she couldn’t save him. So much anger, so much resentment for this boy sitting beside her that had a family and threw it away. So much she couldn’t understand.  
“You don’t have to help me.”   
She shook herself. “It’s fine.” One thing at a time. She laid his huge hand in her lap and dabbed the bacta on as gently as she could. Kylo didn’t flinch. The bandaging was easier than applying the medicine, and she moved faster, tucking the lose end into his palm. Rey cradled it in both hands for a moment, inspecting it critically, then found she didn’t want to let go. It had been a long time since she’d touched another human being without wanting to kill them. Without thinking about it, she ran her thumb across his fingers.  
He didn’t pull away.  
“You haven’t told me why you’re so upset.” She waited, eyebrows raised, as Kylo sucked in his lips, pulling at his torn scar.  
He squeezed her hand. “Can we please talk about anything else besides that?”  
“Anything?”  
“Whatever you want.” They both watched as the porg waddled dangerously on a shelf before jumping off and flying a few feet. It crashed into the viewport. Kylo looked bemused. “They fly?”  
“Um…yes. After they get so old, they can fly short distances.” Rey stifled a laugh. The little thing looked so proud of itself, despite its rumpled feathers. “Good job!”  
Kylo was looking at her like she had three heads. “You’re strange, Scavenger.”  
She was not distracted. “Nice try. You said we could talk about anything else.” She released Kylo’s hand and slid back against the headboard. “I want to hear about…where you’re from.”  
He looked at her warily. “That’s a long story.”  
“Tell me any part of it. Tell me about when you were born.” Rey kicked her boots off, pushing them off the end of the bed. Kylo leaned back stiffly beside her, resting his injured hand on his thigh.  
“Okay… I was born almost exactly one year after the Battle of Endor, the day the Galactic Concordance was signed.” He glanced at Rey to make sure she knew what he was talking about. She rolled her eyes and nodded. “My parents were living in Hanna City on Chandrila when she went into labor with me.” Ben’s voice was soft. “People were dancing in the streets, sure that this meant something—Princess Leia Organa, hero of the rebellion, giving birth on the very day the Empire conceded? Poetry. Force-blessed.” He sighed. “My family said people partied outside the new senate building, surrounded by stormtrooper helmets they’d painted with alliance symbols.”  
“My mother—“ He stopped for a moment and Rey took his hand again. “My mother labored with me for three days, driving everyone out of their minds with worry.” Rey could imagine it—stoic, tough General Organa refusing help, Han and Luke pacing themselves to death with anxiety. “She said it was the hardest thing she’d ever done, and that was saying something.” He smiled, then winced like it hurt. “My father wanted to call in surgical measures and she refused, saying she could feel me and I would come when I wanted to.”  
He slid down the headboard, reclining on the pillows. Rey did too. “My mother said when she held me, she was absolutely terrified. Terrified, because this little light she’d kept within her for so long was now without and vulnerable to the world. Everyone else was jubilant. A new baby, a new hope, so strong with the Force—it was like magic.”  
“So the announcements went out. Ben Solo-Organa. Healthy, happy, Force-blessed. And a full head of dark hair! A prince born to the royal war hero!” He chuckled weakly. “There was also a rumor that I was born with a full set of teeth, but that was thankfully untrue.” Rey grimaced and laughed. Ben sobered. “I suppose in the stories now I probably had horns.”  
She squeezed his fingers gently. “I’m still not sure that you don’t.”  
“Me either.” He pushed his hair out of his face with his uninjured hand. “What about you?”  
Rey shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I had parents, or I had somebody. I can’t even remember what they looked like now. That’s sad, isn’t it?” She frowned. “But someone loved me. Took care of me. Was supposed to come back for me.”  
Kylo looked disturbed. “I’m sorry.” He turned his head towards her. “I won’t leave you, Rey.”  
“I wish I believed you, Ben. But it seems to me you’ve left an awful lot of people.”  
“Not you.” Startled by the intensity of his eyes, Rey brought her free hand to his face. He leaned into her palm. Their bond seemed to hum—she ignored it.  
“Not now. But later, when duty calls or Snoke commands or I become a threat—you will.”  
He was getting angry now, descending to that dark place. “Will I?” Without warning, he dropped his mental shields and she was in his head, strengthened by the skin-to-skin contact. His fear for her on Ilum, on the ship, that day with Snoke…her visions from the crystal bleeding in which he saved her…and a conversation with Anakin.  
Do you love her, Ben?  
No.  
Kriffing hell, Ben—it’s all over your face.  
She dropped her hand away from his face in horror. “No.”  
He was breathing hard, searching her expression. “No?”  
“No, not…” She wiped at a tear in frustration. “No, you can’t feel that way. It makes you vulnerable to Snoke. You’ll die. We’ll both die.”  
“I’ve seen the vision too, Scavenger. I’ll die, not you.” Her heart hurt.  
“Because of your own choices!” She wanted to shake him.   
He shrugged. “I lose sleep over many choices I’ve made. This isn’t one of them.”  
“Ben…”  
He sat up. “Do you want me to go?”  
“I—no, don’t go.” She sat up too, completely lost for words. He didn’t look convinced. “Please stay with me, Ben.”  
He lay back down and she did likewise, the porg squealing to be picked up. She nestled it into her right arm so that Kylo could hold her other hand.  
“Tell me something else.”  
He sighed. “What else could I possibly tell you?”  
“I don’t know. Something funny. Do you know anything funny?”  
Ben frowned, offended, lacing his fingers through hers. “I was partially raised by a Wookie.  
“Chewbacca.”  
“Yes, Chewie. Anyway…” Ben’s voice carried them deep into the night as they moved closer to their destination.


	27. Chapter 27

“Somethings changed.” Dawn was just breaking over Canto Bright, bathing Leia and Luke in a weak grey light. Her brother tapped the fingers of his artificial hand on his opposite shoulder, lost in thought. Leia, already dressed in her usual finery, stopped the tapping with a touch. “Didn’t you feel it?”  
“I felt it.” Luke looked, if possible, grimmer than before.   
“But then you know what it means!” Leia was nearly beside herself at her brother’s lack of joy. “This is what we’ve been waiting for—it’s the chance we need!”  
Luke looked at her. “You know your son better than anyone Leia. What did you feel?”  
She huffed in exasperation. “I felt a change, like gravity shifting. There’s not so much darkness now. It was like—it was hope.” The word illuminated her face, reminding Luke of the first time he’d ever seen his sister, a tiny hologram pleading for assistance.   
You’re my only hope.  
“Let me tell you what I felt, sister. I felt a great disturbance in the Force as two extremely strong individuals pulled towards each other.” He waited as Leia grappled with this.  
She shook her head. “He loves her. That’s what we wanted, isn’t it? What we expected from the bond.”  
“Yes, he does, and that’s the problem. If we felt that—explosion in the Force, do you think there is any chance that Snoke missed it?” Leia’s face fell. “Exactly! Now Snoke has two things to hold over him—you and Rey—and a spare should Kylo fail.”   
Leia’s face was white as Luke clenched his fist. “If he really loves her, and they’re Force bound this tightly—he’ll end up dying for her, Leia.”   
“We’ve always known that was a possibility.” Her face was set.  
“Then consider this! After Snoke has finished murdering your son—after he’s squeezed every drop of usefulness out of him—do you think that Rey is going to be willing to serve him? She’ll only have two choices. Join or die, dooming the rest of us.” Luke spat. “Ben signed both their death warrants the day he stole her from us.”  
He didn’t anticipate the slap and was knocked off balance as his sister’s hand connected with his cheek. “Then go get them. At least Ben was trying to help her. You stand here moaning about everything you’ve lost, because you are a coward. If you hadn’t been so interested in our father after his death, it wouldn’t have changed you the way it did. You’d still have Mara.”  
“Don’t..you..dare..talk about—“  
“Do you think you’re the only one who lost something?” Luke could feel Leia’s strength with the Force around them now, a deadly thing. “I lost my husband and two children and I’m still going, I’m still trying, I’m still hoping because I.still.love.them.” Her voice was getting quieter, angrier. “Don’t preach to me about Light and Dark and balance and fear and suffering. I know all of it.”  
“You know nothing of what your son and that girl are capable of—“  
“I brought you back because I thought you could help. I thought you would inspire people, take care of Rey, help me bring my son home.” Her voice broke on the last word. “But I see that’s not the case. You’d rather sit and seethe in your rage and fear and cling to that fragment of kyber crystal like it can save you.” Her face was disgusted. “I’m going to get my son, because that’s what parents do. That’s what brave people do.” She turned to go. “The powerful Luke Skywalker can stay here and cower.”  
“This isn’t going to work, Leia.” Luke’s face was torn between grief and anger.  
Leia turned her face into her high collar, hiding it. “I don’t care. I’m going to get my baby and bring him home. I’m getting Rey. I will not go through this again.” She paused. “May the Force be with you, Luke. I can see it’s all but left your presence now.”  
Fuming, Leia stalked away, barely making it through the doors before snapping into her comm link. “I’m requesting a meeting with Vice Admiral Amilyn, Finn, Tico, and Dameron. I also need fleet commanders from every squadron.” She swallowed. “We’re leaving.”  
***  
Kylo had a brief moment of happiness before he opened his eyes, not quite recalling where this alien feeling of contentment had come from. His commlink, the source of the noise that had woken him, beeped again and he reached for it gently, trying not to jostle the girl sleeping beside him. Rey.  
It wasn’t as though she’d professed her undying love to him. They’d talked deep into the night, Rey prying more and more stories out of him as it went on. But she’d never let go of his hand once, never had a flicker of unease or frustration cross the bond. For the first time in weeks, there was more light than dark at her end of the connection, more comforting than anything else. He felt happy, he felt—  
Safe?  
He tapped the commlink and any feelings of contentment were destroyed. This was a summons. His master wanted to see him. Now. Leaning over the edge of the bed, he grabbed for his boots that he’d kicked off some time during the night. Behind him, Rey stirred, and he turned to her.  
For a heartbeat, the girl’s face lit up and the bond thrummed between them, until she cleared her throat and reorganized her features casually. “Are we going somewhere?”  
“I am going somewhere. You are staying here.”  
Still sleepy, she took a minute to process this. “Are you leaving the ship?”  
He heard her real question through the bond: Are you leaving me?   
“No, I’ll be right back. Just go back to sleep.”  
“Kylo…”  
“Please.”  
He didn’t look back at her before leaving, honestly afraid he’d crawl back into her bed and bury himself in the standard issue blankets, refusing to leave. This was stupid, irresponsible, irritating beyond belief. He had to think of what his grandfather had revealed to him about the Kyber crystal. That was the main goal, what should matter the most—  
But it didn’t. Not anymore.  
Kylo ground his teeth as he rushed along the narrow catwalks between platforms. Thankfully, he passed no one but a couple errant service droids. Few creatures had any reason to frequent this part of the Finalizer. He punched a code into the door panel, which slid open obligingly.  
The room was cavernous and empty, but for three circular platforms oriented around each other. Out of habit, he stomped the narrow path to take the left circle, reflecting that his master had been displeased with him the last time he had been here. With a deep breath, he tapped the screen to accept the incoming transmission.  
Snoke materialized in front of him, flickering, holo-blue, and terrifying. He leaned forward on his throne, examining Kylo, who kept his eyes fixed straight ahead.  
“My master.”  
“Kylo Ren.” The voice seemed to make the room reverberate with its menace. “Should I offer you congratulations?”  
He swallowed. “I assure you, there’s nothing to congratulate.”  
“Really. I disagree.” Snoke shifted forward slightly. “It’s actually amusing that you still attempt to conceal anything from your master, stubborn boy.”  
“Have I offended you?”  
Stars burst in front of his eyes as pain pressed in on him from all angles. Just as suddenly, it was gone. “Only when you play the fool.” Kylo sunk to his knees. “Look at me, Kylo Ren.”  
He raised his head, baring his face to Snoke, almost proudly. The Supreme Leader reached out as though to touch him. “When I first found you, I saw raw, untamed power.” Even now, years later, excitement crept into his master’s voice. “I watched you from your childhood, was always with you—did I not care for you? When your parents abandoned you to your weak uncle, who was frightened and sought to destroy your spark, did I not save you?”  
Kylo hung his head in shame, squeezing his eyes shut.   
“Look at me, Kylo!”  
With immense effort, he complied. “Yes, master.”  
“I have given you everything you need to succeed. You have never wanted for anything—training, credits, the knights, the ships, the girl—I have gifted all that to you. I deny you nothing.” Anger was pulsating around them. “So why do I feel that your heart is no longer in everything we have worked for?”  
“I’ve been…” He swallowed again. “There’s so much—don’t you feel it?”  
“Last night, I felt the bond between you and the girl increase tenfold. Whatever you did made you both stop fighting the connection.” Kylo could feel her hand in his again and a flush went up the back of his neck. Snoke leered at him. “Which means you both are markedly more interesting to me together now.”  
“Master?”  
“Force bonded pairs have power which is unheard of, maybe seen once every few generations. In battle, you two could be unstoppable together—among other places.” He pressed his wavering fingertips together. “Or at least you can now, having finished being at each other’s throats.” He paused again. “When I took you in as my own—“  
An image of Han Solo. Snoke is just using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he’ll crush you. His master snarled at the memory, then smiled dangerously.  
“Come now, Kylo Ren, you are mine. Your father never wanted a son. You annoyed him, took him away from the life he wanted. But I loved you.” The holographic hand moved towards his face again as though to brush his cheek. Kylo blinked back tears. “When I took you in as my own, I could see that the right choice had been made. A powerful apprentice that surpassed my wildest dreams, and beyond that—something truly special.”  
“Rey.” He whispered her name like a prayer. “You saw Rey.”  
“I saw that you were a half, not a whole. Powerful, but missing this piece of yourself.” Snoke stood, towering over him. “I trust that you won’t disappoint me now that you have it—her.”   
“No, master.” Relief was beginning to trickle down his spine.  
“Good. Then we understand each other. Now, for what I really called you here for.”  
The relief evaporated. “Yes?”  
“The resistance appears to be preparing to mount an aerial attack on this ship. You will lead a squadron.”  
“As you wish.” That wasn’t nearly as bad as he expected—  
“General Leia Organa is leading the attack.” Kylo could hear his heartbeat pound in his ears. “This is your target. Your time has come, Kylo Ren.”  
“Master—“ What was he going to do, beg?   
An image of Rey was pulled to the forefront of his mind, stolen from his memory as she smiled sleepily at him and softly touched his face. Snoke laughed as Kylo blanched. “The girl will remain here in my care. You will do as I ask, Kylo Ren. Kill your mother. It would be so disappointing to not get to see what you two could become.” The threat was implicit. “Protect your heart.”  
Still laughing, Snoke discontinued the call, fading into blackness.


	28. Chapter 28

He wasn’t sure how he made it back to the cabin, but he managed to stagger through the door a few minutes after the discussion ended. Rey, who had been sitting crosslegged on her bed while scrolling through a datascreen, leapt to her feet after one look at his face. “Kylo, what’s wro—“  
“You have to get out of here.”  
“What?” Ben was already rifling through her things, stuffing portion and hydro packs into her beat up old bag. Without looking at her, he threw her lightsaber and belt at the bed.  
“Where’s that stupid animal?” The porg peaked out from behind Rey’s back, clucking nervously. The thing really didn’t care for him, and this wasn’t going to help. Kylo circled the bed and unceremoniously stuffed the creature into the bag as well, fastening the clasp. Muffled honking ensued.   
“Ben! What the hell…” He grabbed her hand and pressed it against his cheek, replaying the memory of Snoke’s threat for her. Rey blinked hard, hazel eyes growing stormy. “Oh, Ben.”  
He shook his head hard. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”  
“Your mother—“  
Blood filled his mouth as he bit down on his tongue. “Rey, please, listen to me. We are hovering directly over the surface of the destination planet. The Resistance is coming here, and I know where they’re coming from.” He pulled at his scar and a teardrop of blood ran down his cheek. “This is my only chance to get you out of here before I’m called.”  
“Come with me!” Rey was holding onto both of his upper arms now, fingers biting in like she wanted to shake him. The bond seemed to whine, wanting to be closer to her. He screwed up his face.  
“I can’t. I’d lead him right to you, and I can’t do that. Not again.” He encircled her thin wrists with his hands, pulling her off him. “The best place for you to be is the one the resistance just left. Canto Bright.”  
“Say I entertain this for your sake. Where do I go?”  
Kylo groaned. “Back to Skywalker. I’m willing to bet he’s still there.”  
“Absolutely not!” She searched his face for any kind of give. He kept his expression stern. “He won’t want take me back.”  
“Yes, he will, and you know it. Please, trust me.”  
“I’m not going. Not without you.”   
“Yes, you are!” Ben leaned on the bond with all his strength and she faltered as he pressed on her consciousness. He caught her before she hit the floor, threw her bag over his shoulder, and carried her out of the room.  
It wasn’t hard to influence the cadet at the command station. “You will ready a departure shuttle for take-off and authorize it without the usual background checks.” The blank-eyed young man obliged, and Kylo felt a brief pang of regret for the execution that no doubt awaited the soldier when someone investigated this. It didn’t matter…Rey was more important. She would be angry, but that was why he’d put her out.   
She came to as they got on the shuttle, blinking in the brightness of the cockpit. “Wha…no!”  
“Shut up or we’re both going to die right here, right now.” Ben was sitting in the copilot seat, readying the controls and programming her destination into the screen. His hands shook on the buttons. Rey struggled against the seat harness, howling with rage when he realized he’d welded it closed with his lightsaber. “Rey, shut up!”  
“You’re leaving me.” Her tone was accusatory.  
“I’m saving you.” He already sounded as hollow as he felt.  
“Don’t do this. Come with me.” She reached for him, huffing in frustration when the restraint pulled her back against the chair.  
“I can’t.” He stood up and leaned over her chair. “Rey, promise me that no matter what you feel over the bond, no matter what you hear, you won’t come back for me.” He brushed her face. “Until I tell you to.”  
“I can’t do that.” She jerked her head away in irritation. He sighed.   
“Here.” He pressed Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber into her hands. “It’s yours, it wanted you.”  
“Ben…”  
He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. Everything in this kiss was fear and pressure and desperation, but the bond sang around them, making the air hot and thick. Rey twisted her fingers into his hair, pulling him closer to her. She had never lived, never breathed, never existed before this kiss. Her consciousness in the Force recognized its match, and reached for him, wanting him—  
\--he pulled away, gasping. “Come back to me, Rey.” Without looking back at her, he ran, everything in the Force screaming at him. Her ship just blinked out of sight when the emergency call came.


	29. Chapter 29

Rey pounded the arms of the pilot’s chair in blind fury, stopping only when faint vestiges of bruising began to purple the sides of her hands. She sincerely hoped that it hurt Kylo Ren just as much, for doing this to her. The bond certainly physically hurt as she drew farther away, as if it suspected they wouldn’t reunite and wanted to pull her back. In a moment of weakness, she reached out to him…and found only silence.   
Kriffing hell. He was shielding against her again.  
“Okay.” She spoke aloud, and her bag twitched on the floor beside her. Remembering, she unclasped the latch and the porg tumbled across the floor, squealing. “Sorry, little one. Okay.” The map on the port screen pinged, alerting her that she was rapidly approaching her destination. She fumbled for the headset.  
“Identify yourself or be shot down, fascist.” The female voice on the other end was not friendly, and seemed to mean every one of its words. Rey gulped. Flying a First Order shuttle into a Resistance-sympathizing planet was not her—sorry, Ben’s—best plan.  
“Don’t shoot! My name is Rey.”  
“Repeat?” The voice was sharp.  
She huffed in exasperation. “My name is Rey. I’m looking for General Leia Organa.” A brief scuffle, mired by static, seemed to ensue on the opposite end of the connection. There was a muffled grunt, and another voice took over the line.  
“Well, well, well. The prodigal daughter comes home.” The new voice was gravely and lewd. Rey pulled her eyebrows together. “I’m going to transmit coordinates to you and set out a beacon. You can land here.” The screen lit up as she accepted the transmission. Against her better judgement, Rey shifted the ship into descent.  
The landing platform was private when she touched down, and that made her suspicious. After cutting herself free of the seat harness, Rey stuffed the porg under the seat and clutched her lightsabers. She stepped cautiously down the ramp, eyes sweeping the dock. A man was slowly approaching her, blowing a cloud of deathstick smoke around his head. He didn’t look like a normal resistance member—there was something odd about his person, an air of danger. She stopped.  
“You didn’t bring the boy.”  
It felt like he’d slapped her, and she blinked slowly. “No,” she whispered.  
“Hmm.” The man appraised her again, twisting his mouth around the deathstick he held between his lips. “You escaped?”  
“No.” She cleared her throat and tried to speak clearly. “He sent me.”  
“Oh! Sent you!” The man tapped something on his wrist. “I thought so.” Several resistance officers appeared from the darkness behind him and approached her.  
“What? No, no!” Three of the grim-faced officers approached her, blasters raised. She drew her lightsaber, engaging it in a shower of red sparks. “I need to see Luke Skywalker.”   
“Red. Interesting color.” The man inclined his head towards the officers. “Has there ever been a Sith that didn’t wield a red saber?”   
“No, sir.” The man to her right sounded almost smug. Rey bared her teeth at him, raising the hilt.  
Something hard nudged the back of her skull. “Drop it, Order hound. Now.” It was the sharp female voice from the original transmission. Rey turned off the saber and dropped the hilt with great effort. She raised her hands.  
“I didn’t come to hurt you.” She tried to speak slowly and firmly, like she would to some of the younger pickpockets on Jakku. The woman behind her didn’t lower her blaster. “I need to see Master Skywalker.”  
The voice from behind her spoke again. “Whaddya’ think, DJ?”  
The grizzled older man looked at her for another minute. “Search her.”  
Hands pulled her bag from her shoulders, spilling her things on the ground. Someone’s hands palmed up her legs and around her waist. She hissed. “Is this necessary—“  
“I’ve got something.” One of the younger soldiers was triumphantly holding Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber above his head, having pulled it from beneath Rey’s belt.  
“That’s mine!”  
DJ took the lightsaber from the boy and engaged it, bathing them in the blue light. “Somehow I don’t think so.” He smirked. “Doesn’t seem to be your color, if you catch my drift.”  
Rey could feel the bad thing inside her stirring, urging her to action. “It is mine. It chose me. He gave it to me. Don’t take it!”  
Behind her, the woman spat. “He—a gift from the beast.”  
She flinched, ignoring that. “Please, DJ, I need to see Luke Skywalker. Can you have him come?”  
DJ laughed. “Skywalker isn’t helping anybody, believe me.”  
“Particularly not the Jedi Killer’s whore,” whispered the woman behind her. Something hot and liquid seemed to drip down Rey’s spine, guiding her to turn. She smiled and the woman began to choke as Rey pressed in on her with the Force. She and the creature wanted this woman dead, and it was going to feel so good to hear that final pop! as she succumbed.   
“I don’t think so, chosen one.”   
Taking advantage of her distraction, DJ set his blaster to stun, aimed directly at her chest, and fired.  
***  
“Sir.”   
Kylo Ren was standing on the upper deck of the finalizer, watching the scramble in the hanger below as pilots readied themselves for the incoming attack. His hands were clasped tightly in front of him in an effort not to bend over or disintegrate from the pain the bond was forcing down his core. Rey was in some sort of trouble, from what he could discern without dropping his shield. However, better she be light-years away and locked in a cell than free here.  
“Sir?” The TIE-pilot behind him approached slowly, holding her helmet. “We’re ready to board.”  
Every move cost him a huge effort. He turned his head to the side. “Then board. I’m coming.”  
The woman nodded once and took off towards the hanger. Kylo took a deep breath and followed her, positively aching.   
Someone had already prepared The Silencer for departure, one last droid skittering away under his arm. He hauled himself into the cockpit, feeling comforted in spite of himself by the familiar feel of his pilot’s chair. This was his ship, his baby. All he had to do was fly and…and push a button. He could do that. He had to. Push a button and get Rey. His master would forgive him this minor transgression.  
Kylo pressed on the control yokes with his boots and jammed a headset over his ears. He never could abide the claustrophobic annoyance of the traditional TIE helmet. No way was he wearing something that vacuum sealed around his neck. “This is Kylo Ren, unit leader. Check in!”  
Four voices chorused back to him. “Checking in, Lord Ren.” He leaned against the crash netting, reading the profiles that popped up on his squadron. Top-of-the-class, elite. He’d been given the best they had on this mission.  
And very little reason to fail.   
The alarm reached a fevered pitch now, and the room seemed to hum with the presence of all the active ships. Hux’s voice, magnified 100 times and every bit as annoying as the first time he’d heard it, cut through the noise. “Depart and fire at will.”  
Kylo pressed forward hard on the rods, taking his foot off the control yoke. The ship snarled and leapt forward, the rest of the squadron falling into formation behind him.  
The first few shots were laughably easy as untrained X-wing pilots were forever snuffed out by neon laser cannons. What were they thinking, coming here? Kylo pulled up sharply on the lefthand rod, bringing the Silencer horizontal as he dipped into their command shuttle hanger. It was hard not to feel joyous at the sheer speed and freedom of flight. He would smile if not for—  
His mother. He could feel her presence, so close, closer than she’d been to him in years and years. What could she have possibly been thinking, coming here with the grunts on a suicide mission? One of his ships went down in a burst of flame and he cursed, firing on the offending ship. He was getting closer…  
There. He knew without a doubt which command port his mother stood in, could feel it as certainly as he felt Rey pounding on the bond between them. One of his men shot past him, covering his starboard side.  
Ben.  
He almost screamed as his mother’s voice cut through the din around him.   
Ben! Ben baby, come home. I want you back. The familiar voice was thick with emotion.  
He swallowed back tears, fighting against the tightness in his throat.   
I can’t, mother. I’m so sorry. He thought of Rey. I have to do this. Slowly, he lowered his thumbs over the firing buttons. A deep breath. And then—  
Okay. It sounded like Leia Organa had resigned herself. It’s okay, Ben. I don’t want you to hurt, brave pilot. I love you so much, have always loved you so much. Your father loved yo—  
Wham! The impact of the counterattack was devastating, ripping off his right wing and sending blinding heat into the cockpit. He’d waited too long. Kylo cursed and ripped on the emergency eject lever beside his seat, praying that the ship was close enough to the planet’s surface that the impact of the pod wouldn’t kill him. The pod hurtled towards the planet’s surface. He was losing consciousness from the rapidly dropping altitude. He had to keep blocking Rey, or she was going to feel this—  
Darkness.  
****  
“Let me out!” Rey kicked the metal door with all her might, leaving a dent behind. No one answered and she flung herself back on the bed, tears of rage trailing down her cheeks. It had been twenty minutes since she’d woken in this glorified prison cell with a horrible ache in her chest, and ten since she’d lost Ben on the other end of the bond. He wasn’t dead, but she really doubted he was sleeping right now.  
The door slid open, making a nasty screeching noise as it cast over the dent she’d created. DJ slunk in the room, pulling the door shut behind him. As Rey sat up and opened her mouth, he trained his blaster directly between her eyes. “Don’t speak. You open your mouth, and I will shoot you in your pretty little face.”  
Determined to keep Ben from coming for her, Rey pressed her lips together and nodded. Her anger felt like a visceral thing, an animal twisting around her feet. DJ smiled and sat in chair across from her, jiggling his foot. He tossed her something and she caught it reflexively. Paper. Pen. Who used these anymore?  
“I’m not inclined to fall victim to a Jedi mind-trick only to have you knife me in the back. However, there’s things I’d like to learn from you.” Rey rolled her eyes. DJ leaned forward eagerly.   
“Maybe I’m not making myself clear. You assaulted Luke Skywalker, betrayed General Organa, and ran away with The Enforcer. I have enough right there to execute you on the spot, and no one here would question it. That’s not to mention all the lives lost on the resistance base because of what you told him.”  
Rey tried to bite back her fear. DJ smiled. “Great. Since we understand each other…how did you find us?”  
She scribbled on the paper, her handwriting clumsy and out of use.   
He knew where Luke would be. I don’t know how. I had to leave quickly.   
DJ frowned at her response. “He just knew?”  
I think he could sense it through the Force. I don’t even know where we are. She bit down on her lip, thinking. Maybe he had a stronger connection with General Organa than we knew.  
“Interesting.” He kept his blaster trained on her face as he considered what she’d told him. “You’ve been on The Supremacy?”  
She nodded.  
“How many of them are there?”  
I don’t know. Thousands. I didn’t exactly have the run of the ship, but I can tell you that the Star Killer attack didn’t decimate them. It wasn’t a blow of Death Star-magnitude. Listen, I will tell you whatever you want to know, just let me talk to Luke. He can help us!!  
“Tell me about the bond between you two.” She opened her mouth, stunned. “Careful,” DJ said, bringing the gun closer to her face. “Don’t be stupid.”  
She scribbled faster now. What bond?  
DJ glanced down at her response and slapped Rey, making her vision spotty. The floor cracked around them from her anger, pushing the older man back against the door. He laughed and stood up, still pointing the blaster at her. “Careful, scavenger girl. Did the boy teach you how to stop blaster bolts? Not that you can get your hands up that fast.” Rey pulled angrily at the chain connecting her wrists to her waist. Not short enough to hinder small movements, but not long enough to protect herself.   
“I’m going to ask you again. Tell me about the bond.”  
She nearly punched a hole in the paper as she answered.   
It’s a Force bond just like Luke would have described it to you. We can pull from each other’s power, hear thoughts, and appeal to emotion. It makes us both stronger.  
DJ nodded, reading over her shoulder. “Does distance matter?” She looked up at him in confusion. “Does distance make it any harder to hear or feel or whatever you would call it?”  
No.   
“So he can feel everything you’re feeling right now?” There was a hunger in DJ’s eyes that made Rey write faster.  
I think he’s been injured. It’s unlikely he’s asleep right now and the bonds…dimmed. But yes, when he wakes up, he’ll know where I’m at, how I’m feeling, all of it.  
“Does he care for you, scavenger girl?”  
It only took one glance for Rey to recognize the right answer to that question.   
No.  
“I think you lie. I think that once a Force bond has had time to settle like yours has, he’s going to come running to save you no matter what.” He smiled. “I’m really sorry it has to be this way. But General Organa wasn’t ever going to let us lay a hand on her son. If she wanted that, she shouldn’t have spawned a murderer.”  
The door slid open again, making them both jump.  
“Luke!” She was saved. Relief made her body go limp—and then stiff. Luke was holding his hand out in front of him, freezing her in place.  
“Rey.” He looked sad. “Didn’t he tell you not to speak?”  
She couldn’t even shake her head. A tear rolled down her cheek.   
“I can’t go through this again, Rey. The galaxy cannot have another Darth Vader rise to power. And you were helping him!” Anger heated his words. “I told you once, it’s time for the Jedi to end. We have to eliminate the risk of this ever happening again.”  
He laid a hand on her immobile shoulder. “I’ve called your master. Imagine his relief that we’d found you.” This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. “As you can imagine, he’s a little displeased with both of you, but agrees with DJ that you can bring the other.”  
Rey unclenched her jaw, trembling with the effort. “Snoke’ll kill you too. Or I will.”  
“Of course he will. But I’m an old man with no loved ones left…what do I have to live for? At least I can die knowing that I’ve protected the galaxy from the scourge that is my family one last time.” He turned to go to the door, looking back at her sorrowfully. “I wish you’d never found me, Rey. You would have been safe where I told your family to leave you.”  
He nodded at DJ and left the room, not looking back this time. DJ turned to Rey, looking both disturbed and resigned. “I really am sorry about this, scavenger, but he’s right. No one should have to lose a kid to some super-powered tyrant ever again.” He shoved a gag in her mouth, which she tried to spit out unsuccessfully. “The sooner you bring him to us, the sooner this can end for everyone. I assume since distance makes no difference, he’ll hear you screaming soon enough.” He fired twice, once in her right leg and once at her side. Blood spurted around her and despite her best effort, she did scream.  
DJ left the room and she rolled onto her side, panting.   
Ben. Ben. Leia. Ben. Leia. Ben. Please help me. It’s a trap. Ben. He’s waiting for us.  
You’re my only hope.


	30. Chapter 30

“General.”  
Leia was clinging to the edge of the ship’s viewport railing, staring intensely into the ether. C3PO hesitantly tapped her with his red arm. “Princess…General…they’re inbound.”  
She started and turned around, coming out of her reverie. The resistance’s assault had done what they meant it to do; in the distraction of battle, Finn and Tico had been able to land and assimilate themselves behind enemy lines.   
Kylo Ren’s near-successful attack had been another issue entirely. Amilyn had immediately pulled the unit after shooting him down, ordering them a safe distance away from the First Order. To the enemy this looked like a retreat.   
It was a recovery mission.  
The senior officers all turned as the doors slid open, revealing Vice Admiral Holdo and Poe, who ran directly into Leia’s arms. She clutched him tightly, the pressure of her fingers asking what she could not.  
Poe nodded, flushed and dirty. “He’s alive. We got him.” Anxious murmuring followed this statement, the audience obviously uncomfortable. Threepio muttered “Oh, my…” in the background.  
“Good.” Her voice sounded steady. “I need to see him now. Is he in the medbay?”  
“He’s in holding, Leia. We can’t risk the medbay.” Amilyn frowned, obviously unhappy with their new hostage. “Can you handle this?”  
Leia shot her friend a look. “Of course I can. Poe?” Dameron immediately moved forward, hand on his blaster.  
“I’m not sure that’s wise…you should take a larger guard.”   
“Honestly, Amilyn, that’s unnecessary. It’s more of a risk for them to come.” She felt like she might actually be leaning towards the closeness of her son’s presence.  
“Okay, General. It’s your call.” Amilyn turned towards one of her lieutenants, choosing to check the tracking map on Finn and Tico, cold disapproval emanating from her.  
Poe and Leia made the short trip to one of the two holding cells on board, both pausing outside the locked door. He reached for Leia’s hand and squeezed. It was the most comfort she could hope for at this point. Taking a deep breath, she entered the cell.  
It was dark in holding, which smelled of smoke and fuel, the clinging result of the crash that had incapacitated him. Kylo Ren lay on a cot attached to the far wall, wrists bound at his waist. A long chain connected these restraints to his feet, which were tethered to the wall. The man did not move, more of a shadow creature than her son. Leia found she was afraid.  
“They sedated him,” Poe murmured.   
The figure shifted slightly, the head turning towards them. “Is that Dameron?” Poe and Leia both jumped. Kylo groaned. “I’ve died and am most definitely being punished,” he muttered.  
“You’re not dead, Ben. You’re welcome, by the way.” Poe stood over his old friend, arms crossed. Kylo blinked at him through heavily lidded eyes.   
“Huh. They were so sure you were dead.” His words were slurred; whatever they’d sedated him with, it would take out a Hutt. “Mother?”  
She cleared her throat and stepped forward. “Yes, Ben. It’s me.” He turned his head slowly, trying to focus.   
“Did they send you to kill me?” Something twisted inside her sharply at his matter-of-fact tone.  
“No. Not yet.” Leia moved forward and was relieved to see that, no matter the monstrous stories, this was still the face of her son. She traced his half-closed eyelids, her cheekbones, Han’s jaw and mouth, shocked to find stubble there. Ben in her memory was frozen at seventeen, very different from this dark man lying in front of her. Her fingers ran over the long wicked scar, trailing off to his shoulders. Leia gasped at what little of his skin she could see, at the scars that crisscrossed every inch of exposed flesh.  
“It only gets worse the longer your look.” He lay perfectly still, not resisting or encouraging her. “I told Rey that when…when…” His glazed dark eyes finally seemed to focus in the dim light.  
“Rey!” Immediately, he began struggling against the restraints, cursing and bucking. Poe stepped forward, blaster raised. Kylo looked at him with malice. “You don’t have the stomach for it, Dameron.” Poe frowned and lowered his blaster, just barely.  
“Ben.” Leia used a stern mother’s voice she hadn’t used in years. “Don’t make this worse for yourself.” It’s going to be so hard to save you already.  
“They can’t hold me forever, mother, you know that.” She did know that. He yanked on the restraints again. “If you let me go, no one has to die.”  
“Ben!”  
He convulsed, bending double on the cot before throwing himself the opposite way, arching his back and kicking out his right leg as far as the restraint would allow. The lights in the cell blew out and Leia felt her son’s incredible power knock into both her and Poe.   
“Let me go!” Kylo Ren was hedging on complete hysteria, throwing his head back against the wall. “Oh, no. No, no, no.” He grabbed at his left side. “Rey!”   
Poe stepped forward again, carrying a syringe. “Watch it, Ben. Calm down.” Ben took one watery-eyed look at the needle before throwing Poe into the opposite wall with the Force.  
“No, please—he cast his eyes around the cell wildly, desperately. “Mother, help me! Don’t do this, don’t put me out, she’s hurt—“ He threw his head backwards and screamed her name again, pulling at the restraints with enough force to break his wrists. Leia thought she heard a slight pop.  
“Ben! Where is she? What’s happening?”  
He opened his mouth, but at that moment, Leia didn’t need explanation. She heard her own name clearly through the Force, in a terrified timbre she didn’t recognize. Help me.  
“No…” Leia was aghast. A tear slid down Kylo’s cheek. “She’s on Crait?”  
“Yes, I think they moved her—“ Poe was stirring on the floor. “Get me something to get this kriffing sedative out of my system before you get someone killed,” Kylo bellowed.  
Poe frowned. “General?”  
“Get him something. Tell Amilyn we have to get back to Crait—now.” Poe dithered on the spot for a moment. “Trust me, Poe!” He nodded and ran.  
“Mom, you have to let me go. Let me go get her, I’ll come back, I’ll do whatever they want.” He gripped his right leg again and groaned. “Rey, Rey…mine,” he screamed, seeing or hearing something she couldn’t. “Please, no…”  
“What is it?”  
“My master is there.” He swallowed. “And so is Luke.”  
“Luke?” Leia closed her eyes for a moment, reaching into the force. “Luke, what have you done?”  
“You have to get me out of here. Now!” This time, Ben succeeded in breaking one of the wrist cuffs, and began hauling on the mainline of the restraint with all of his strength. The wall began to creak.  
“Ben, I can’t—“  
“I have to do this. Not you, not your band of optimistic fools—me. They’ll only let me get close.” With a final jerk, the restraint detached from the wall and he rose unsteadily to his feet. Leia watched him quietly. There were so many questions, so many things she wanted to tell him…  
…so many chances that would be eviscerated if she allowed her son to break in front of her right now. Looking at her trembling boy, she was reminded strongly of another boy she’d loved long ago, someone who believed in he was doing all the right things, but for the wrong reasons. Kier.  
She shook herself as Kylo Ren began to pace the cell, agitation rolling from his pores. There was no way that she could risk this, as much as she wanted to help him. Too many people were counting on her. “I’m sorry, Ben. We just can’t.”  
Her son froze, and then slowly turned towards her. “Anakin is alive.”  
Leia’s lips parted in shock. She could hear every tremulous beat of her heart. It took her a moment to recover her voice, a problem she rarely faced. For the first time since reuniting with Ben, she was angry.  
“How dare you…how vile can you be…impossible.” She considered slapping him.  
“I’m not lying. He’s alive.”  
“You killed him!”  
Something seemed to torment Ben again—he grabbed his temples as though intent on crushing his own skull. “I did not kill my brother,” emerged from his gritted teeth.  
“Ben, you’ll understand why I don’t believe you. You killed your father!” She looked away from him, pressing her wrist to her mouth. How many nights had she kept that grief tramped down?  
“He’s sixteen. His strength with the Force is great. He has your eyes, and his hair is lighter than mine, like dad’s. You were right that he’d look like grandmother Amidala.”   
Leia held up her hand as though he was hitting her with his words, each of them a sharp slap. “Stop this.”  
“He senses your presence but has no idea who you are.” This made her reconsider. That pull that she thought was so strong towards her Ben…what if it was because there were still two? Ben grabbed one of her hands, squeezing it too tight. “Let me go, mother, and I swear I’ll bring him back to you. Let me go.”  
The door of the cell slid open, revealing Poe, who glowered darkly at them. “You are sick piece of kriffing waste, Ben. Everyone knows you killed him, you murderer.” He turned to Leia to say something and stopped short. “Amilyn wants to know—General?”  
Leia trained her blaster carefully on his face. “I’m going to need your ship, Poe.”  
All the color drained from his face. “Leia,” he whispered.  
“I’m so sorry, Poe. Don’t think badly of me.” She looked away from him and fired. The stunned pilot crumpled to the floor, landing in the open doorframe. “Let’s go, Ben.”  
“I’m so sorry too, mother. I really am.” She didn’t have a moment to react before Ben’s hand was on her face, pressing on her consciousness. Kylo caught her as her legs gave way, gently lying his tiny mother on the floor. “I love you.”  
He took care to stomp on Dameron on his way out, using the Force to pull Poe’s comlink into his outstretched hand. “But I have to get Rey.”   
Kylo reached out, doing his best to send reassurance down the bond.  
I’m coming.  
The response was a string of expletives as she realized what he had done that almost made him smile, if not for her weakening presence at the other end.  
Hurry.


	31. Chapter 31

Finn wasn’t ready for any of this.   
The panic provoked by the attack had allowed him and Rose to effortlessly assimilate into the ranks of the Finalizer. Their uniforms were up to date and blended well—no one questioned them as they moved furtively among the corridors. It bothered Finn how incredibly normal it felt to be here—the familiar clearance and incident codes, service droids, even the rhythmic thump of trooper boots on the floor all sounded like home. His mind wandered to his squad brothers. Were they here?  
“Finn.” Rose kept her gaze fixed, barely inclining her head. “They’re not stopping.”  
He glanced up at the datascreen above them, still flashing with alerts. She was right. None of the pilots were returning from the fray, and more were now jogging down the halls toward them. Rose shifted slightly, angling herself into an alcove. “What’s going on?”  
“They’re…they’re being dispatched. Going somewhere else!” He could feel the sweat starting to bead under his grey uniform as he read the alert more closely. “They’re moving the entire fleet and this ship to…Crait?”  
“Why?” Rose’s whispered question was almost instantly answered in the worst way possible. The Knights of Ren—the name was like a kick in the gut—rounded the corner, led by the evil looking Talin Ren. She was toying with her death’s head mask, seemingly irritated with the shorter night who was muttering in her ear.  
“…not dead, I can feel it, why haven’t they sent someone to find him? We should go---“  
“WE have orders from the Supreme Leader to attend to this nasty business on Crait.” The Zabrak’s mouth widened into a grin, showing every one of her pointed teeth. There was no warmth to it at all. “Our master has left you in my care. So you’ll follow me.” She elbowed the boy hard. “And I say we’re going to Crait.”  
Finn cursed under his breath. If Kylo Ren had been lost in the battle, then where was Rey?  
As if he had heard his thought, the knight who had argued for Ren turned towards him. Finn was reminded terribly of the paralyzing gaze that Kylo Ren had skewered him with on Jakku. Rose immediately tapped her comlink and looked busy, because she wasn’t a complete idiot like him—  
“Why aren’t you two with the rest of them?” The knight approached them slowly, head tilted slightly to the side. There was something about the boy that Finn didn’t like. The other knights slowed their pace to wait for their comrade. He waved them on. “I’ll be there in a minute. Let me escort these two fine officers to their stations.” The remaining six slunk out of sight, jostling each other with a wild energy, like animals on a scent.  
“We don’t need your help.” Rose spoke with such authority that both Finn and the knight turned to her. “We’ll be on our way now. You’re clearly needed elsewhere.” She tried to take a step forward and the knight thrust his hand in front of her face.  
“You’re not going anywhere, unless you want me to alert everyone in the ship that we have two resistance members onboard.” The modulated voice gave away no emotion and Finn’s mouth went dry. What had they done to give themselves away—?  
“You said her name.”   
Finn blinked hard. “Name?”  
The knight exhaled sharply. “Rey. My master was training her. She was with him the last time I saw him. Was she with him when he went down?”  
“Down?” Suddenly the conversation between Talin Ren and the others made sense. “Oh, stars.” Finn felt sick, and Rose laid a hand on his shoulder in unspoken support. “They were shot down?”  
“The Silencer was brought down by enemy fire. Records show that Lord Ren deployed his escape pod.” The knight shook his head. “I never would have believed it, he’s the best star pilot—“  
“Don’t be so sure about that,” Finn said grimly, thinking of Poe. “His pod was deployed?”  
“Yes. I know he’s not dead. I would have felt it.” The knight crossed his arms over his chest, as if he wanted to squeeze himself. “I haven’t sensed the girl.”  
“That’s because she’s not here or with him.” Rose was gaping at her comlink. “Finn—they had him. They’re all going to—“ She stopped short and glared at the knight.  
“They’re all going to Crait as well.” The man didn’t look towards her for confirmation.   
Finn shot the knight a look and turned his attention back to Rose. “What do you mean they had him?”  
“He escaped. Attacked General Organa and Dameron—they’re not dead—and stole one of the smaller ships. It looks like…it looks like he’s headed there too.”  
The knight slammed his fist into the wall panel beside them, and Finn jumped despite himself. “He’s going to get the kriffing girl! I knew this would happen.”  
“And what do you care? You people are like animals, just waiting for the alpha to turn his back one second too long, dying to take it’s place.” His anger bubbled dangerously close to the surface. “That girl is my friend.”  
The knight considered him for a minute, then pressed his palm to his facemask. The netting melted away, coming off into a compact square in his hand. Losing all sense, Finn reached for him instantly, snarling. “You!”  
“Stop.” The boy thrust up a hand and Finn met a hard resistance in his lunge. Rose hauled on his arm, pulling him away from the knight. It wasn’t him, he realized. The hair was lighter, and this boy was much younger. But in the fuzzy memories of that battle on Star Killer…  
“I’m Qyn. I need you to help me find my brother.”   
Rose clapped her hands to her mouth, head shaking. Finn simply gaped at the younger man in front of him, unable to find the words. Finally, he managed to choke out, “Your brother?”  
“Yes, it’s not something we publicize—what is wrong with you?” He looked bemusedly at Rose’s stricken expression. “I gather that you want the girl. That’s fine. The more space you put between her and B—Kylo Ren the better. That is why I’m not raising the alert—yet.”  
“You’re going to help us?” Finn’s wheels were still turning. A brother! A dark thought occurred to him, one he quickly shoved away. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder how much leverage kidnapping the boy would offer them. Ren’s familial instincts were obviously not strong, but a brother was much different from a parent…  
“I’m going to allow you to walk down this corridor and into the officer quarters. I’m going to look the other way when we get to Crait and let you to find that girl.” He looked steadily stonier. “But believe me, traitor, I can feel the emotions your harbor towards Kylo Ren. And if you blink in his direction, I will kill both of you and the girl.”  
Rose spat at his feet, and the knight smiled. “This is my only offer. Last chance.”  
Finn glanced at Rose and surreptitiously squeezed her wrist. “Okay.”  
**********************************************************************************************  
The resistance was scrambling to cover its own ass. Chewbacca and his new sidekick, some strange avian species that made a lot of noise, had found him crumpled on the floor after BB-8 had rolled screaming down the hall. The Wookie had pulled him to his feet like he weightless and roared at the sight of General Organa on the floor. It hadn’t taken long for everyone else to come running. But it was all for nothing.  
Kylo Ren was gone. In his x-wing.   
Poe gnashed his teeth, cradling his broken left hand. General Organa had since been moved elsewhere to recover. He hadn’t told them what had happened in the holding cell yet, unsure if he even believed it. The woman he respected above all others, turning her weapon on him. Firing. She’d chosen her own blood over the greater good, just as everyone had feared. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to betray her.  
“Beginning landing approach on Crait,” a lieutenant announced. Poe turned his eyes on the screen. Crait was a mineral planet, barely big enough to warrant its own name. The most distinctive thing about the rock was its red soil, but you could only find that if you kicked up enough of the salt crystals. In the days of the Empire, the Rebel Alliance had hidden there among the sodium mines. That was why, he mused, that the resistance had taken root there again. If they had any amount of manpower at all, it was here. Now the First Order was coming straight for them.  
“Ground troops are awaiting our arrival. No First Order ships have been yet detected, but thanks to Finn, we know they’re coming.” Vice Admiral Holdo, for once having dispensed with her elaborate gowns, crossed her arms over her flightsuit.  
“Tell the ground troops to man their stations,” the warbling voice of Admiral Ackbar commanded from the end of the bridge. “It’s still likely they’ve sent some faster TIE pilots to start the assault.”  
“The ski-speeders are beginning the ground assault. Let’s see any ‘walkers get past that!” The lieutenant’s grin was slightly bloodthirsty. Several of his friends nodded in agreement.  
“We’ll need arial support.”  
“I’ll lead it.” Everyone turned to look at Poe. He realized he was still cradling his hand and dropped it. “I’m fine to fly.”  
“Dameron, all due respect, but you’ve had a rough day, and the hope here—“  
“The last rebellion thrived on hope. We’re going to use that hope to light the spark that will bring the First Order down.” Anger dripped from every word, the result of the raw emotion left by General Organa’s betrayal.   
Holdo smiled at him wistfully, then turned to Admiral Ackbar and shrugged. “Okay. What do I know? Take it away, Red Leader.”  
Poe smiled and headed towards the hangar, barely catching the Admiral’s next sentence.   
“Has anyone heard from DJ?”


	32. Chapter 32

Rey was fading in and out of consciousness. She hunched over a pillow she’d managed to tear off the bed, using it to staunch the flow of blood from her side. Time started to become meaningless as she lay there, seething with rage and bitterness. The dark side hissed from within her, uneasy at the weakness she felt. She couldn’t find the strength to harness it.  
Apparently she was dying too quickly for their taste, because a med droid soon joined her. It poked and prodded at her wounded side, and she thought wildly of the mental conversation with Kylo right after he’d left her on Ahch-To the second time, her quiet needling about his wound. She could see now that these injuries were much more severe than she’d thought, and made a mental note to apologize to Kylo if she ever got out of this. The droid pricked her neck with something, and everything faded.  
**  
“Arise, little padawan.” The word, archaic and strangely familiar, was what guided Rey out of her haze. She sat up, blinking at the harsh lights around her. Red. Everything was red. The heels of her hands kneaded her eye sockets until she could focus.   
She was sitting in a huge chamber room with walls the color of freshly spilled blood. From her vantage point, she could see at least fifteen Praetorian guards circling the room, all encapsulated in their vivid armor. The room was grand and bright, but it gave off a coldness that seemed to seep into her from all angles. With the stiff slowness instilled by her injury, she turned to find Snoke’s throne to her left, from which the enraged master was glowering down at her.  
Somewhere across the bond, Kylo groaned.  
Taking advantage of her bewildered silence, Snoke began to speak.  
“You’re so vexing to me, Rey. I’ll admit, when Kylo Ren came to me about you—a scavenger—resisting him, I was afraid that I’d picked a weak apprentice after all. But that wasn’t it, was it?” Snoke set his fingertips together, watching her carefully. “The awakening that I sensed was not that of a singular force, but of two disparate pieces hurtling towards one another.” He paused again to watch for her reaction; she gave him none.   
He sighed. “Another master—a lesser man, like your Luke—would have been frightened to the core of the power that I sense around you. And he was, so much so that he was willing to hand you over to Kylo Ren, and thereby me, just like that!” He laughed quietly at Rey’s stricken expression. “Imagine my feelings, youngling, when I discovered that my apprentice has stolen you from me.” He shook his head. “After all I had allowed you…so disappointing.”  
“I didn’t—what do you want?”   
“I want you to take what is yours, Rey. Strike him down, and I will give you everything.” The master’s tone was casual, as though this was an errant thought that had just happened through.  
This fell heavily on her woozy mind. “No!” She heaved on the bond. Where was he?  
“No? No? Come now, Rey, you know you want to.” There was a knocking noise in her head as Snoke broke through her mental shields, tearing the locks to pieces. “This man took Han Solo from you. He injured your friend. You may have convinced yourself otherwise, stupid girl, but Kylo Ren very much believes in everything the First Order stands for. Are you committed to stand by that?” Her heart lurched painfully at the truth of his words.  
“I knew as much. You’re tenderhearted and young, and you’ve been swayed by the ideals of the Resistance, which preys on green minds like yours. I can help you understand so much beyond your own comprehension.”   
He pressed deeply into the darkest corners of her mind, places she avoided at all cost. “Come, Rey, I see it within you. You liked talking to Lord Vader, oh yes; you relish the power it gave you. Yes, I see it, I feel the joy that comes from mastering that. I can teach you everything you want and more, everything the boy would not show you.” Snoke pulled his white hands apart, Force lightening crackling there. “He wouldn’t even share this with you, would he? He fears you, Rey. The schoolboy crush is the best way he could find to control you.”  
“You’re wrong.” Her voice came out choked and she swallowed back a sob.  
“Am I?” Snoke turned to his left. “Am I wrong, Lord Ren?”  
Kylo had slunk into the throne room from a rear entrance, and now ascended the steps to rest beside Snoke. Rey felt all of his emotions spill over the bond as he released whatever shield he had up. One distinct word—don’t—hung between them. He looked battered and dirty, but whole. Rey worked hard not to keel over with relief.   
“Stupid boy!” Snoke released some of the rage he’d kept under a simmer with Rey. “If you weren’t mine, I’d have killed you long ago.”  
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
Fifteen-year-old Ben Solo hung over the refresher sink, sinewy body wracked with sobs. He raised his head to look into the mirror hung above it. Cracks spiderwebbed their way to the frame from where his fist had landed earlier. He looked at the blood dripping onto the floor and cursed. How could they not tell him? No one, not his Uncle, not his father, not even the damn Wookie—  
Ben. His head jerked up instinctively at the familiar disembodied voice. 'Come to me, Ben.'  
“I’m not in the mood for this right now.” His voice was low, bitter.   
'You’re in pain, Ben. Come to me.'  
“Come to you? You mean after all this time you could have found me sooner?”  
'Your parents would not have liked it.'   
Again, his anger at his mother threatened to boil over. Of course, Princess Leia Organa would not have liked it if he’d done something nefarious. Never mind that she’d kept this secret from him for his entire life. Every single holo on the galaxy was buzzing with the news. Famous war hero and peace advocate, Senator Leia Organa, the daughter of Darth Vader. And they’d almost elected her to a position of power! Thank goodness the news had been released before that catastrophe!  
Thank the Force for small blessings, one reporter had piped. Ben laughed bitterly. Thank the Force…these stupid little people knew nothing of the Force, nothing of the strength which he could wield. Fury bubbled up again. It was not his mother they should be afraid of—it was him.  
'Come to me, Ben. Can you come here?' A location was dropped into his head, somewhere very close to where he now hid in his family’s home on Chandrilla. Yes, he could do that.   
'Good.'  
It was easy to leave unnoticed. Nearly all of the staff had run away screaming (now he was being dramatic) when the news broke, and no one questioned him as he left. He threw up his hood and slunk through the city streets. The address the voice had given him was the location of the Rebellion memorial. Scattered stormtrooper helmets decorated with Rebellion insignia encircled a list of names of those lost. On a bench behind the archway, a hooded figure sat waiting. Ben gulped and rested a hand on his lightsaber before approaching.  
“You don’t need that with me, Ben. At least, not yet.” The voice sounded just as ancient and deep as the one in his head, and it finished its sentence with a chuckle. “Walk with me.”  
Ben followed in silence, still preoccupied by his own anger. “You’re upset about your grandfather.”  
“Of course I am,” he burst out. “How could they not tell me? They hid it for their own benefit!”  
“Of course they did. They didn’t want you to discover the breadth of your power.”   
Ben kicked a rock moodily. “I have no extraordinary power. Uncle Luke—“  
“Your uncle knows exactly how much power runs through your veins. He’s been deliberately preventing you from using it.” This broke through Ben’s preoccupation.   
“He’s…he’s…?”  
“He fears that you’ll discover it one day on your own. They’ll all be afraid of you now, Ben. I’m afraid you’ll have very few friends left.”  
“Because my grandfather was a monster?”  
“A monster? Oh, Ben Solo, your grandfather was so strong with the Force he was practically a god. A Sith Lord who knew his worth. And if it hadn’t been for your wretched Uncle, he’d still be with you today. Very much like you, he was.”  
Ben really wasn’t in the mood for this. “I’m nothing.”  
“No!” The word was sharp and brought Ben up short. The man grabbed his chin and pulled his face upwards. “You are Lord Vader’s heir. You have no idea what you could become, because your family seeks to limit you. I can help you, Ben.”  
“I don’t understand.”  
“I can teach you things that your uncle cannot comprehend. Listen to me, let me teach you, and when the time comes, I will take you away from all of this.” The man grabbed his shoulders. “They won’t be able to hurt you like this ever again.”  
Ben shook his head, positively bewildered. “I don’t even know you.”  
The figure chuckled. “Of course you do, Ben. Have I not been with you many years? Even when your parents were too busy for you, I saw the potential.” He pulled Ben closer, resting a hand on his dark hair. “You are what I have been waiting for. He lives in you.”  
The boy pulled back, still wary. “You’ll teach me? And you promise you’ll come back for me?”  
In the darkness of the hood, a ghost of a smile stood out. “Of course, my young apprentice. My son.”  
Ben narrowed his dark eyes. “And what should I call you?”  
“Master will do.”  
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
“I’m understandably very hurt, Kylo. It’s been a long time since you deliberately disobeyed me.” Snoke was toying with them. Rey fought back mounting panic.  
“I’m sorry, master. I knew the girl would be intercepted once she landed. I didn’t think it would be a problem.”  
Snoke was standing now. “What a relief to know your true intentions, Lord Ren! That will make this so much easier.”  
Rey felt it then, the first flicker of real fear from across the bond. “What is your bidding?” Kylo was working hard to keep his voice steady.   
“Seeing as the girl is much too weak to be of any further use to me…“ Snoke rounded on Rey, Force-lifting her off her feet. “I’ll make this easy for you. Strike her down, Kylo Ren. Kill her and remove all competition. Purge yourself of this connection that weakens you.” Every nerve in her body lit up with what felt like flames, her back bent into an unnatural contortion. The pain took over her every thought; it made her long for the blaster wounds, saber burns, death—  
“Fulfill your destiny!”


	33. Chapter 33

Kylo could feel Rey’s scream reverberating through every single cell of his being, the bone-breaking pressure of the torture just as real for him as it was for her. Snoke smirked at him as he rose and engaged his lightsaber, and the familiar thrum steadied his shaking arm. Rey unscrewed her eyes for a moment to meet his as he slowly approached her, lifting the saber over his head. It was all he could do not to collapse on the floor and scream with her. A flash of something—resignation maybe—crossed her expression. He swallowed and raised the weapon higher---  
\--and spun on his heel to throw it directly at Snoke, just as he’d taught Rey when he’d first finished her lightsaber. His master managed to block the attack, but the goal was achieved—his concentration had been broken. Rey collapsed on the ground in a heap as Snoke got to his feet, snarling. Kylo stretched out his hand and his saber returned to him, settling heavily in his palm. For one terrifying moment, he couldn’t feel anything on the other end of the bond and reached out, wasting precious time.   
“Stupid, like your grandfather. Weak like your parents. Such a waste, Kylo Ren.” Snoke was advancing now, becoming less human as he swelled with rage. He ignored him, bending to put his ungloved palm to Rey’s face. The bond sang and her eyelids fluttered. Relief flooded his system, followed swiftly by anger. He turned to face Snoke.  
“You wanted her to kill me. Because you want the same thing I do, and you knew she wouldn’t be interested in it.” The silence that followed seemed to stretch on, and Kylo broke it again. “If you have Skywalker, why do you not have the kyber yet, master?” Snoke didn’t flinch, but he spidery hands curled into fists.  
“It would appear, Kylo Ren, that your uncle thinks he can hide from me. Don’t doubt that I’ll have him soon.” He gestured to the waiting Praetorian guards, all who appeared to be on high alert now. “Kill him. Bring the girl to me alive. I see now that this is the bloodline I should have focused on.”  
Snoke retreated as Kylo sank into a crouch over Rey, lightsaber trembling in his hands. The guards approached, circling around him. Most of them sported the double-bladed staffs that their particular brand of soldier favored. In his panic, it occurred to him that Rey would have been much better at this than he was. He didn’t allow himself to look down at her. Not now.  
The Praetorians fought as a unit, using two or three to distract him while others came from behind. Kylo managed to level the playing field by Force choking a few into unconsciousness, but they continued to come at him from all angles. The thought crossed his mind that he might make it if he would just run, just leave her to Snoke. But he couldn’t leave her, not now—  
He didn’t move quickly enough and one of the blades sank deeply into his upper thigh. Blood immediately began to soak his leg. Too much, he knew. Slower now, and unable to put his full weight on the leg, he started to lose. The weapons caught him again, one even managing to reopen his old face wound. Blood filled his mouth. He was losing, and he was going to lose her. His Rey.  
The marble floor broke open around his feet, throwing him to the ground. All of the remaining guards around him were blown backwards by the power of the explosion. Rey, miraculously alive, stood above him, hands thrust out on either side of her small body. Once again, she’d cracked the earth with the strength of her Force repulse. Most of the guards were unconscious. She managed to give him a small smile, hazy with injury fog. “It looked like you needed me.”   
She swayed a little on her feet, and Kylo stood and pulled her into his arms, abandoning any and all pretense. He pressed his lips to hers and whispered sheepishly, “I know.”  
Rey snickered. “You came back.” Her words sounded slurred. “Monster,” she teased.  
“Filthy scavenger.” He looked over his shoulder to where several of the guards were struggling to their feet. “Kriff it all, we’ve got to go, Rey.”  
Suddenly he was aware of the cold clamminess of the skin on her arms where he held her, the sheen of sweat on her forehead. Saving him had cost her energy she didn’t have, and she was fading. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he picked her up and started to walk for the doors. Using the absolute limits of his remaining energy, he threw a Force shield behind them, holding off the guards. Rey looked up at him, her eyes never leaving his face.   
“Hang on,” he muttered. “Stay awake. We’re together now. I’ll get you back to the resistance.” Her eyes slid shut and he privately thought he’d get her anywhere, even to Hux, if he could offer them medical help.  
“I heard that,” she muttered. “And after that I seriously doubt Hux is going to let us have so much as a bandage.”  
“Don’t be so sure,” he said, wanting to keep her talking. “Snoke may not have told anyone yet.”  
“We’ve got to find Luke.” At the name, Kylo snarled, something low and guttural. “No, listen, Ben. We’ve got to find him before Snoke does. Whatever he did to me, he’s still got Vader’s kyber. Darth Vader told me in commune what someone could do with it. Please, we have to—“  
“This isn’t our problem anymore. We are getting our hands on the next ship we can find and heading to the very edge of wild space. I’ve got to get you out of here.”   
“Wild…wild spac---no!” Now she was flipping in his arms like a fish, and Kylo noticed with no small amount of panic that blood was beginning to seep from her barely repaired side. He leaned on the Force to hold her still. “Let go of me, Ben Solo. I will kill you if we don’t die here!”  
He laughed, almost hysterically. If they didn’t get outside soon, they most certainly would die, if only from blood loss. His bad leg was finally starting to give out on him. Gently, he lowered Rey to the floor. “I need you to do something for me, okay?”  
“What?” Her eyes were wild and panicked. “Ben, we need to go!”  
“We’re not getting any further until we fix my leg.” He handed her the hilt of his lightsaber and she immediately grasped what he was suggesting.  
“Ugh, no! Kylo, I can’t.”  
“You can and you will. I’ll shield so you don’t feel it.” He placed his thumb over hers and engaged the lightsaber. Flames crackled above his thigh.  
“Yes, because pain is something I’ve never experienced.” She rolled her eyes. “Brace yourself. This is going to hurt very badly.”  
“Terrific,” he replied drily. She brought the blade down on the open would on his thigh, and he shoved his entire fist in his mouth to keep from screaming. The sickly sweet smell of burned flesh filled his nostrils, making him feel sick. Rey, to her credit, didn’t flinch and made neat work of sealing the wound. As soon as it was done, she disengaged the saber and held his hand.   
“Are you okay?”  
He held up one finger, trying to bring the pain down a few notches before dropping his shield. There was no way he could disconnected from her now. When he felt like he could speak without screaming, he forced himself to his feet. “I’ll make it. Let’s go.” He held his arms out for Rey, who waved him off.  
“I can walk.” She placed her hand in his and let him lead the way through the labyrinth of the base. “I wish I had a weapon. They took everything from me.” Her brows crinkled. “My porg! He’s still in Canto Bright.”  
“If we get out of here, I will build you another lightsaber and personally get you another one of those stupid birds.” All of this came through gritted teeth as he favored his smoldering leg.  
“I don’t want another porg, I want my porg. We’ll just have to go back and get him.”  
Kylo groaned.  
“Rey!” Kylo had a brief impression of blurred uniforms and noise before someone crushed Rey into a hug so strong that her hand slipped out of his. Rey pulled back and squeezed the boy’s shoulders.  
“Finn!” A wide smile broke over her face. “I thought I’d never see you again! What are you doing here?”  
The boy looked covertly over his shoulder, pulling the officer’s cap lower over his eyes. “We’re supposed to bring you home.”  
“We’re?”  
“We’re.” A tiny girl with olive skin appeared, also decked out in First Order regalia. She casually pressed a blaster into Kylo’s back and he winced when she nudged another shallow blade wound. “I’m Rose. We’re here to rescue you.”  
“Hey, no deal. Get that blaster out of his back.” Rey released Finn and frowned at the girl. The tiny officer looked to Finn.  
“Either the blaster stays where it is, or I will gladly kill him right here.”  
Kylo smirked. “I’d say I’d like to see you try, but I have and it’s not pretty. Do you want me to hurt you again, traitor?”  
Finn stepped closer. “Give me one good reason, and I swear I will.”  
“Kylo,” Rey snapped. She turned to her friend. “Finn, he saved my life just now. We don’t have time for this. Just trust me.”  
“It’s not you I don’t trust.” He shot Kylo a nasty look and produce shock cuffs. “Give me your hands.”  
“I will not.” Kylo was trying to fully stand on his wounded leg. “We’ve got about five minutes before every trooper in the building starts looking for us. You’re going to want me to be able to fight.”  
“I doubt that. Give me your hands, Ren.”   
Too tired for anything else, Kylo just looked at him. “Rey,” he said.  
She sighed in exasperation. “I don’t have a weapon. Cuff his left to my right and I’ll keep track of him.” She was using the last of her self-restraint. “And please get that blaster out of his back. He’s already hurt.”  
Finn’s eyes slid from Rey’s expression to Kylo. “They were right,” he muttered to Rose.   
“Right about what, exactly?” Rey’s question was lost as the alarm sounded, shrill and deafening, over the complex.  
“We have to go.” Finn slapped the cuff over Kylo’s wrist with unnecessary force and reluctantly put Rey’s in the other.   
“We’re not going to make it out of here,” Kylo muttered. “Unless you’ve got some miraculous ship that will fit the four of us outside.”  
“I’ll do you one better, Ren.” Finn forced his way out of a side door where a gigantic animal waited. It was the size of a small ship, slightly hairy, and had a rather kind face ending in a snout. “Here we are.”  
Kylo stared at the animal. “You’ve got to be joking, FN-2187.”  
“It’s Finn, and I’m not. Now if you want help getting on this thing with your busted leg, shut up and think kind thoughts.” Kylo huffed and Rey shot him a warning look.   
“Can you at least cuff her left now so we can ride comfortably?” Finn glared at him but released Rey’s right hand cuff. Kylo considered Force choking him when he saw the bright red mark it had already left on her skin, but refrained. Escape now, murder the boy later. He wrapped his left arm around Rey so that she could place her wrist in the cuff. There. Now they could ride.  
The girl scrambled up and took the animals reins. With a grunt, Finn managed to force Kylo onto the creature’s back as Rey pulled them up. He broke into a sweat as he threw his injured leg across the saddle. He laid his head on her shoulder and let out a shaky breath.   
“You okay,” she murmured.   
'I’d be better if we could get you somewhere for help.' The bond trembled with his fear.  
“Let’s go!” Finn slid onto the saddle behind Kylo and the animal began to move. “One wrong move, Ren, and I will kill you, whether she likes it or not.” He didn’t respond, only tightened his arms around Rey, who was colder than he liked due to blood loss. The stormtrooper’s irritation sang to him through the Force and he smiled.  
Somehow, impossibly, they made it to the resistance base. Kylo was stiff and half-frozen when they arrived, and staggered off the creature rather than let Finn help him again in front of these people. The resistance soldiers muttered as they were escorted through the doors, Rose leading and Finn bringing up the lead with his blaster. They stopped in front of an interrogation room that reeked of disinfectant. Bad things happen here, Ren thought. He knew a torture chamber when he saw one.  
“Alright, Ren. This is your stop.” Finn smiled pleasantly.   
“Not happening,” Rey snapped. “I’m staying with him.”  
“Rey, don’t be stupid. You need medical attention.”   
“I’m not being stupid. I’m telling you how it’s going to be. He needs help too.” She rounded on the resistance soldier who was watching the argument with exasperation. “I’m staying here with Kylo Ren. You can disengage the stun cuffs once we are inside.” With that, she tugged Kylo through the door and flung herself into one of the two rickety chairs at the table. Through the glass of the door panel, Finn gave a visible sigh and tapped his comlink. The cuffs clattered to the floor.   
“And send a medic,” Rey yelled at the door.  
***  
“We got them. Your stormtrooper actually got them.” Amilyn was walking quickly with Leia down the corridor of the Crait base. “I can’t believe they did it.”  
“Of course they did,” Leia said proudly. “Why is Rey in holding, soldier?”  
The disgruntled troop guarding the door frowned. “She refused to leave Kylo Ren, ma’am. We couldn’t get her to come out.” He jerked his thumb towards the glass. Through the pane, Leia and Amilyn could see the two figures huddled together at the table. Kylo Ren leaned over Rey, his long arms wrapped protectively around her shoulders, his head resting on her back. They were both asleep, completely dead to the world.  
“She won’t let anyone touch him. That’s why we called you. They’re hurt pretty bad.” Leia’s heart gave an unpleasant lurch as she looked at the blood coating the table.   
“I see. Well, let us in, soldier. I’ll see what I can do.” The troop pushed the code on the door panel and it slid open. Amilyn led the way, stepping smartly in her combat boots.  
Leia rounded the table to check on Rey, her fingers lightly pressing on the girl’s wrist. Her pulse was weak but there, Leia noted with nothing short of relief. At that moment, Kylo Ren’s eyes shot open and he raised his hand in their direction.  
“Don’t touch her!” His eyes were wild.  
“Ben, it’s me. You’re safe. You both are safe.” He blinked at her through the thin coating of blood on his face.   
“Mom?”  
“Yes, baby.” Amilyn pursed her lips in apparent disapproval. Leia had the uncomfortable thought that Amilyn suspected more of what really happened during Ben’s first escape than she’d let on. “You need to let us take Rey. She’s very hurt.” Her son’s eyes slid down Rey’s small form, traveling over the blood soaking the girl’s clothes.  
“I have to come with her.”   
“You’ll do no such thing,” said Amilyn. She was scowling at Kyo. “You’ll be lucky if we don’t throw you in solitary to rot until this is over.”  
Hysteria touched his voice. “I’ll wear the cuffs. I’ll do anything. Please don’t take her from me.” The girl chose this moment to finally stir. She reached blindly behind her for Kylo as she sat up and leaned back into his chest.  
“What’sgoinon?”  
“You need to go to the medbay, Rey.” Leia squeezed her hand.   
“Not without him.” Amilyn tutted with exasperation. “Please?”  
Leia looked at the Vice Admiral. “Fine! Take the murderer with you.” She pointed to the soldier outside. “I want this man in stun cuffs and ankle locks. Keep blasters on him and if he sneezes, shoot him.”  
The soldier, looking as though a better reward would have been to back out of the room, approached Kylo, who docilely held out his hands for the stun cuffs. He never once took his eyes off the girl. When the man put on the ankle locks, Kylo hissed and leaned away from the touch.  
“He’s hurt too,” Rey protested. She was looking dangerously sleepy again.   
Kylo had enough. “Can we go to the medbay now, please?” Every word was laced with venom. Amilyn ignored him, tapping on her comlink.  
“Leia, no one has seen or heard from DJ. I’m worried.”  
Rey’s eyes widened and she grabbed Leia’s shirt. “He did this to me. Shot me. Helping them.”  
Amilyn, Kylo, and Leia all stared at her. “Who?”  
“DJ! He was with Luke. They gave me to Snoke. They wanted…” Her eyes landed on Kylo again. “He’s with them.”  
“What did you do, torture this child into madness?” Amilyn was staring at Rey in shock. “DJ has been with us from the start.”  
“He’s not. He’s been working with Luke.” This, more than anything else, seemed to permeate Amilyn’s defenses. She looked at Leia.  
“He was the first to offer to stay on Canto Bright with Luke. And they never told us when Rey arrived. Not a blip on our communications.”  
“Which means the First Order will know exactly where to find our base in a very short while, if not already.” Leia tapped her own comlink. “Emergency meeting of leaders, Threepio. Hurry!”  
The soldier from the door leaned around it. “Your escort is here for the medbay.” Finn entered the room, blaster held aloft.   
“Oh, Rey.” He breathed out. “You look terrible.”  
“S’fine.” She leaned back on Kylo again. “Let’s go.”   
“Ben.” Leia caught Kylo’s arm. “Don’t leave her.”


	34. Chapter 34

Luke Skywalker was huddled in the husk of an abandoned AT-AT, staring at the kyber crystal clenched in his numb fingers. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten here, only that he’d started walking after he and DJ had landed on Crait and never stopped. He was waiting for the ripple in the Force that could only be the death of one of those kids. Something else to add to the laundry list of tragedies he had caused. Even the necessary ones, like the Death Star, had haunted him later. Thousands of lives snuffed out in an instant. The cost of war.  
The ripple never came.  
He wondered if Leia knew what he’d done yet. She had to by this point. They’d be looking for the girl—Rey. Luke forced himself to say her name. Rey, the girl who had trusted him and asked for his help. Rey, the girl he’d betrayed. Because she was something far more terrifying than he was equipped to deal with at this age.   
Sheev Palpatine had always shown an unnatural interest in the junk planet of Jakku, making several journeys there before he became the physical manifestation of his inner demon. Rumor had it that he entrusted the care of whatever was so precious on that planet to the much feared Admiral Gallius Rax. After the fall of the Empire, everyone had assumed there was something precious, doonium or otherwise, under the desert sands. It wasn’t until years later that Luke discovered this was not the case.  
The little girl had been dumped at the Jedi academy when she was three or four—she hadn’t been able to tell them when she’d shown up. Mara had adored her, of course. There was something feisty in the little one that reminded her of herself. Luke often came home to find them sparring playfully, the girl going toe-to-toe with his wife. When she’d neared the age of five, Mara came to find him, her green eyes careful.  
“When are you going to start training her, Luke?”  
He’d barely glanced up from the ancient book he was reading. “Hmm?”  
“Keera. She’s strong with the Force, don’t pretend you haven’t felt it.” Mara tossed back her red hair haughtily. “You need to start with her.”  
“She’s young…”  
“Not everyone waits as long as you did to begin training.” Luke raised his eyebrows and she laughed. It was a hearty sound that filled the whole room. “She needs it, all the same, Luke. Why are you so worried?”  
He’d shut his book. “I’ve still been sensing that presence. I fear bringing more powerful Force users into the fray will attract it before I can pinpoint the source.”  
Mara settled into his lap, looping her hands around his neck. “Let them come. What could the great duo of Luke and Mara Jade have to fear?” She didn’t wait for his response. “I want her trained. There’s not nearly enough of us women out there.”  
And so he’d started the girl with the other younglings, leaning on the little knowledge he’d gleaned about how the Jedi Order used to do these things. She was strong, and that was the problem. Strength like that was like a beacon, particularly in youth when one couldn’t control their Force signature. And Keera’s was tumultuous and troubling. Still, she grew and learned, and that pleased Mara.  
More perplexing was her preoccupation with Ben. Keera toddled after him in nearly every free moment, and the gangly boy tolerated it. Usually his nephew couldn’t stand the presence of younglings for more than a few hours; patience was not his strong suit. But anytime Keera was around, the boy had a smile for her. Luke remembered the day he’d burst through the door, dragging her by the hand.  
“Uncle Luke, Aunt Mara, you are never going to believe what she just did—“  
“I knocked him down,” Keera had giggled.  
Ben nearly upset the cup of blue milk Mara slid to him. “I was throwing balls for her to Force push, and she did it so well she pushed me. Like, backwards. A considerable distance. It was strong.”  
Keera giggled again, and Mara ruffled her hair. “Of course she did.”   
Luke smiled but watched them carefully. Ben seemed to not be able to stress this adventure enough. “She literally Force pushed me, Uncle Luke. A five year old. I’m fourteen.”  
That night, Luke had crept into Keera’s room and pricked her little hand. She didn’t even flinch. He’d made the trip into Chandrilla to use Leia’s databases there. It was all he had expected—high midi-chlorian levels, heightened abilities—but then something else pinged in the system. Luke had read it once, twice, three times before accepting he hadn’t gone mad. Fingers scrabbling on the controls, he’d ran another ancestry work up.  
Naboo. Jakku. Palpatine.  
Sheev Palpatine.  
His lip had wobbled, shocking him. Luke hadn’t cried in years and years, thinking there was sorrow enough in the world without adding to it. This felt like a threat. Had the person who’d left Keera with them known who she was? If so, did they just want to be rid of her incriminating bloodline, or was there a more sinister aspect to all this?  
He’d told Mara the next night in soft tones while Ben and Keera watched something on the holo in the next room. Mara had flinched at little at the sound of her old master’s name, but otherwise took it well.   
“I’m sure it’s not a threat, Luke. Who could be left?”  
“That’s precisely what disturbs me about it, Mara. Who is left?” He held his wife’s hand and squeezed it. “Leia is out looking for other Force-sensitive peoples. To see if they’ve felt anything.”  
Mara had glanced towards the room where Keera sat. “I’m not going to let anything happen to her, Luke. She’s ours. No matter where she came from.” Luke still looked mutinous. “Think of who you came from. Where I came from. Not so great, eh?” She kissed his cheek. “We’re her family. And if I’m not mistaken, I’m pretty sure she and Ben are going to be glued at the hip for life.”  
It was okay for a little while. But after all he’d learned about his father with Lor San Tekka, Luke grew more and more paranoid as time went on. Ben was receding from him, drawing deeper within himself as he turned towards manhood. That ominous presence, once barley more than a whisper, had strengthened into what felt like a sentient being. One he still could not find. And of course, the whispers of the new budding super power in the galaxy—the First Order—plagued them day and night.   
“We’ve got to tell people who she is,” Luke told Mara. The news of his and Leia’s parentage had broken in the Senate earlier that day, and it was absolute bedlam. Ben had taken off, stars only knew where, and the galaxy was buzzing with the news.   
“Absolutely not. It’s a witch hunt out there. They’ll kill her!”  
“She’s a little girl!”   
“Someone will come for her when they realize who she is, you mark my words. You put her in more danger by being honest. That beastly thing we feel out there—it’s looking for someone like her.”  
Luke looked at her, aghast. “We have to hide her.”  
“I’m going with her.” There was no hesitation, nothing at all.   
“Mara, no.”  
“Mara, yes. She’s my daughter.” Her green eyes flashed dangerously.  
“But she’s not your daughter!” He’d spoken before thinking. Mara flushed dangerously, and there was a small yelp from the door. Keera stood there, eyes huge and full of tears. The little girl spun and ran, hair buns bouncing behind her. The door cracked from the impact of her Force slam.  
“Very nice, Luke. No matter how you think of her, she is my daughter. If you’re not with this family…you’re against us. I’m going to find Keera and Ben.” She’d slammed the door, if anything, even harder than Keera on her way out.  
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
“Ben!” Keera’s skinny arms snaked around her very best friend’s waist and pulled him into a hug that was more of a squeeze. “Where have you been?!” She snuffled and wiped her face on her sleeve. Ben, she could tell, had been crying too. His dark eyes were rimmed with red and fresh tear tracks stood out on his cheeks.   
“Keera. I can’t breathe.” She released her hold on him and started crying all over again. He patted her awkwardly on top of her head. “Hey, kid, you’ve got to calm down. What’s wrong?”  
She gave another big hiccoughing sob. “I was listening to Mara and Luke and—and—and—“  
“Keera, calm down.” This time she did get calmer. Ben had that effect on people. She sniffed again. “Luke told you not to do that.”  
Ben smiled, watery but true. Keera made him feel better, no matter what. She was like a little ball of light flitting around. “We just won’t tell him. Now what’s wrong?”  
“I came home and Luke told Mara that he don’t like me.” Her lip trembled.   
“Doesn’t,” Ben corrected absentmindedly. “Don’t pay attention to Uncle Luke. He’s a liar and a…” Ben struggled for the right words for a youngling. “A bad man. But don’t worry. I think I have someone that will take care of us.”  
“Mara Jade?”  
“No, not Mara. It’ll be like an adventure, Keera, you know? We’ll talk about it some other time.”  
The little girl finally mopped her eyes and smiled. “An adventure. Okay. Are you okay, Ben?” He twisted his mouth. “Oh, no, don’t be sad! I’m sad when you’re sad.”  
“I’m fine, Keera. Want to go fly?”  
“Yes!”  
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
A few nights later, while Mara was out with Leia, Luke had watched Keera sleep peacefully on the couch. He took a deep breath, gathered his nerve, and scooped her up into his arms. Her little eyelids fluttered then opened.   
“Luke! Where are we going?”  
“Just a little trip, starfire. You can go back to sleep.”  
The little one nodded off again, completely oblivious to the fact that her life was about to change. R2 whirred and beeped beside him. “We’ve gotta do this buddy. Mara’s right—they’ll come for her. And I can’t let Mara go with her.” R2 beeped again, sounding indignant. “I know, I know.”  
On the ship, Luke had pressed his hand to Keera’s temple. What he was doing was immensely complicated, but it had to work. It had to. She wouldn’t know him, or Mara, or Ben…especially not Ben. The two of them together looked like a solar flare in the Force.  
Unkar Plutt was one step above a slaver, but at least there were other children here. She could have friends, play like a normal kid. Not a jedi. He looked at the sleeping girl in Luke’s arms.   
“She sure doesn’t look like much.”  
“She’s strong. I just need someone to look after her for a little while. It’s…delicate.”  
“I don’t ask no questions,” the junker answered. “I’ve had lots of workers here for ‘just a little while’ that are about 80 now.” He laughed cruelly. “You do what you need to, mister.”  
“She knows her way around a ship. She’s smart. She’ll be a big help to you.”  
The alien frowned at her again. “Well, give her here.” Luke handed the girl off the Unkar and didn’t look back, almost running to the ship. As he departed, he heard her anguish through the Force.  
Come back!  
When he returned, Jade’s Fire was gone. And so was Mara.   
********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
Now he was crying, broken on the gutted floor of the walker. It never would have gone this wrong if it hadn’t been for his father. Some things are better left buried, and he couldn’t leave well enough alone. Desperately he took a shuddering breath and imagined the Force filling him up, like a cup. Another heaving sigh got him to the right place. He didn’t mince words this time.  
“Father?”  
“Luke.” Relief—this was Anakin Skywalker, his voice aged by grief. “Luke, what have you done?”  
“I don’t know anymore.” A tear seeped out. “I let them get hurt. I betrayed them.”  
“Yes, you did. But they still live, Luke. There’s still time to help them.”  
“Help them what? Turn Keera to the dark side? Let Ben annihilate planets with his new friends?”  
“You know there’s another way. They’re together now, one in the Force. You could help them bring the balance.”  
“I am utterly beyond helping anyone. You ruined me.” He shot an accusatory look at his father’s Force ghost. Anakin bowed his head.   
“You’re not ruined Luke, but don’t think I don’t understand why you feel this way. You love me but you’re afraid of—“ His Force ghost abruptly shifted into the form of Darth Vader, the ruined figure crackling “—me.”  
Luke backed up against the side of the ship. “Get that thing away from me.”  
Anakin’s form shifted to take over. “But it is me, Luke. There were never two separate Force ghosts. Both are a piece of me. You can’t change that, anymore than you can change the darkness within yourself that you so desperately try to attribute to that tiny piece of crystal.” Luke looked down at it in shock. “You bled that yourself. Haven’t you noticed how much darker it is now?”  
“I don’t understand…”  
“Use both sides, my son. Help them. There’s still light in you, just as there is still light in my grandson. In your Keera. They need you now. Go to them.”  
“I can’t…”  
Vader shifted back to form. “Because you refuse to harness the true power of the Dark Side. You let it feed within you, on your fear and anger. Push it without. Save our family.”  
Anakin returned. “The Force is always with you, Luke. As am I. Help them.”  
Luke wiped his face on his sleeve and reached out into the Force. Wherever Rey, Ben, and Leia were now, they were in relative safety. But there was something more sinister coming for them. He stiffly shoved himself into a standing position and into the doorway. A Star Destroyer was descending slowly, bringing who knew how many new troops with it.   
His father was right. He had to help them, and now he knew how. Drawing on the Dark Side, he pushed his terror from within to without and raised his hand—  
The Star Destroyer shuddered to a stop. Gritting his teeth, Luke clenched his fist and pulled the ship out of the air. It crashed to the surface with an explosion of light. The Force swirled around him, both dark and light.  
And it felt good.


	36. Chapter 36

The resistance medics patched Rey up right away, concentrating on her side. Whoever had shot her—this DJ he would kill when he got the chance—had expertly missed anything vital. Kylo sat beside her with his chin on his cuffed hands as they worked. The unlucky medic who had drawn the short straw and had to tend to him was much less gentle than Rey’s—she giggled as she felt every stab of pain and annoyance that Kylo experienced during his treatment.  
'Shut up. It’s not funny.'  
'Oh, but it is. He’s poking you with that needle like he’d rather be stabbing you.'  
'Can’t you hear him? That’s exactly what he wishes he was doing. Then again, I guess he’s more skilled than you were with my hand.' Another jolt of pain on the bond.  
Rey winced. 'I was much gentler, I think.'  
'Yes, you were.' He let his mind wander to that night in his cabin with her hand in his, and the warmth of her lying beside him. The bond had thrummed at the skin to skin contact, and he idly wondered what it would be like to press her against him, no clothes to lessen the intensity of that connection. Not for the first time, he imagined her sighing his name, being connected in the most terrifying way. And, because he was being himself—  
'I’d like to fuck the brains out of this garbage picker.'  
Rey snickered, bringing him out of his reverie. With horror, he realized he hadn’t put his mental shields back up. Her being there felt so natural now that he’d let his guard down. She smirked at him. “You almost had me until the end there.”  
The remaining medic looked at Rey suspiciously and she gave him a dazzling smile. “Just talking to myself.” He forced down a laugh and the medic looked even more put out.  
“Rest,” he barked and left the room. Finn had been called away, and another soldier’s shadow shifted in the brief light before the door sealed again. Kylo turned his head to look at Rey, who was gazing at him with her big hazel eyes. There was something predatory in her stare, and he felt the dark side answer the call of his nerves.  
“Tell me something, Kylo Ren. What would happen if I disabled those stun cuffs?” Rey’s voice was low and she threw a glance at the door.  
“Probably an alarm would sound, and I’d be shot in a matter of seconds, most likely die slowly and with great pain since none of your people can shoot,” Kylo said drily. He bounced his knee in irritation.  
“Say no alarm goes off. Remember, I was a garbage picker—I’m good at this.” She swung her legs over the edge of the bed.   
Ah. He stopped jiggling his leg and leaned towards her. “Your friends would say I’d try to kill you.”  
“And would you?” She was watching him like a mildly interesting holo program, and it was driving him crazy.  
“Maybe.” He smirked a little. “Maybe I wouldn’t.”  
“Hmm.” Rey appraised him. “And if someone comes in and you’re out of cuffs and not killing me, we could both end up in a holding cell together.”  
“You’re going to have to make the consequence sound like less fun if you want me to behave.”  
“Ha.” Her lilting accent grew stronger as she spoke with conviction. “Well, as a scavenger, I think I am morally obligated to pick up trash and make something useful out of it.”  
“You think I’m trash?”  
“You said it, not me.” Her deft fingers moved over then underneath the cuff itself. She stabbed at it with something sharp.  
“Ouch!”  
“You’re fine.” Rey kept wriggling something in the band until both cuffs slid open with a hiss. “Tada!” She laid them on the table beside her bed. “Don’t lose these—they have to go back on.”  
“Can you undo my ankles?” She cocked one eyebrow but ducked down by his feet. While she fought with the cuffs, he reached down and unwound the tie from her hair bun. Her dark hair fell loosely, barely touching her white collarbone. Finally, the shackles released him and Rey gently put them on the floor, looking nervously towards the door.   
Kylo slid his hand across her cheek until his fingers were in her hair. She turned her face into his caress and kissed his palm. “This doesn’t feel like attempted murder,” she murmured.   
He Force lifted her into his lap, and put his hands on either side of her slender neck. Their foreheads came together. “I can do whatever you like.”  
She smiled and then brought her lips to his ear. “I’m pretty sure I heard you mention something earlier about a garbage picker…”  
He nearly toppled the chair in his haste to get them to the bed.  
*  
Red. Everything was red.   
Their aura in the Force, possessive, aggressive. Passionate. The scar she’d given him, where she’d pressed her lips as he’d moaned her name. His expressive, demanding mouth that he’d brought to her core again and again until she felt like she’d break. The flames that engulfed them both where their skin touched, the heat almost unbearable. The markings all over both their bodies, the result of teeth and nails and grips that squeezed too hard. The signature she’d left on his already scarred skin, raking her nails down his back. The flush of anger and frustration that had lead them here. The possessiveness that came with knowing he was hers, all hers.  
Not Ben, but Kylo Ren.  
*  
Everything was blue.  
The aura around them, around her, his light, his peace. Beautiful. Giving. Calm. The veins on her white, freckled skin that he’d only dreamt of laying bare. The blue-black strands of his hair she’d twisted in her fingers. The bruises they’d bitten and broken into each other’s lips, which he could feel when he pressed his together, and skin, where he could lay his hands and match them to the marks on her small hips. The absolute waterfall of relief where their skin met, almost cool enough to make him shudder. The happiness and longing that had been there all along. The fear when he realized that she was finally his, all his, to protect.  
Not a scavenger, not a Jedi, but Rey.  
*  
They lay together for a long time afterwards, watching the numbers on the clock tick by. Rey stroked his hair away from his face, one leg dangling off the bed. “You’ve got to put the cuffs back on. And get dressed. Preferably not in that order, by the way.”  
Ever a disciple of discipline, Kylo forced himself into a sitting position and started feeling for his clothes. All he needed was for that damn stormtrooper to come in now and half his brains would be blasted onto the next wall.  
“Kylo?” Rey had already slid back into her medbay robe. He felt her unease through the bond.  
“Yes?” Yes, love?  
“I’ve never used the contraception injections before. Should I be worried?”  
It took him a second to reply. “We’re fine. Let’s focus on getting safely out of this.” He tried to send comfort down the bond. “I promise.”  
He watched her for a long time after she went back to sleep. The dark side came to him in his anxiety, making his hands tremble. What, he thought, were the biological implications of a Force bond? Is it truly just Force-willed, or could it be a way to—here, he felt sick—pass on the ability. Did it heighten the chances? He glanced at Rey’s sleeping form again. She looked so happy.  
No way was he risking her life, not even with the smallest of chances of that actually happening. They were leaving, soon.


	37. Chapter 37

“General Hux. Thank you for joining us.” Snoke’s voice rang through the throne room, which bathed the other occupants in hellish light. With a slight sneer, Hux nodded his head at the Knights of Ren, all of whom rested to the left. There was a sort of electricity crackling through the group. Snoke broke the silence almost lazily.  
“Kylo Ren has betrayed you and left with something that belongs to me.” This time, there was no question about it; the Knights positively seethed with malice. Hux worked hard not to take a step away, letting his eyes slide to the back of the group, where one of the shorter Knights stood absolutely still. For some reason, this was more perplexing than the violent energy in the rest of the group.  
Snoke resumed his control of the situation, a dangerous smile on his lips. “Find him for me, and be rewarded. Bring me the girl, and that person can start their own trial.”   
Talin Ren ripped off her death’s head mask, every one of her pointed teeth bared in a grin. “I will bring you both, master. I will not fail you.” Snoke eyed her almost dismissively.  
“We shall see, Talin Ren.” He pressed his fingertips together. “There remains another problem.”  
“Skywalker will be dealt with.” This from another masked Knight.  
Snoke waved a massive hand. “See that it is done.” The knights and several Praetorian guards all made for the doors. “Wait!” Snoke rose and walked to the end of the dais, his twisted body undulating. “You. Qyn. Stay for a moment.” The knight nodded once and dropped to one kneed. Snoke turned to Hux.  
“I trust you know that the rebels are preparing to mount an attack.”  
Hux snarled. “They have already done so. An entire Star Destroyer went down not 20 minutes ago. Just impacted on the surface. I’ve never seen anything like it, no weapon—at least they’ve given away their location.”  
“Not just their location, General. That was the work of Skywalker, I have no doubt.”  
Hux blinked. More annoying Jedi witchcraft. “Then my men shall have him soon.”  
“See that they do. I’ll tolerate no more mistakes from you.” Fuming, Hux nodded. The Knight rose from his kneeling position. “Ah, Qyn. Take off your mask.”  
“I’ve been instructed not to.”  
Hux didn’t see Snoke’s hand move, but the Knight stiffened, rising up on his toes as though an electric current held him there. “And now you’ve been instructed to take it off.” Shakily, the Knight brought his palm to the mask, which melted away.  
Hux blanched. It was like looking at Ren, but with conscious mistakes. The boy’s hair was lighter, his build slighter, but the resemblance couldn’t be denied. How long had this man been here, hidden, without any of them knowing? Looking exactly like Ren, the boy glared up at both of them through his nearly black eyes.  
Snoke smiled beatifically. “The resemblance is uncanny, is it not, General?” One of the Praetorian guards approached, holding something large and dark in his hands. It was Ren’s stupid helmet, Hux realized, the chrome lines gleaming in the odd light. Snoke took it and placed it in the boy’s grip.  
“Hmm…but there’s something missing.” Hux was a not a stupid man, and he knew when to retreat. He took a deliberate step backwards just as Snoke unsheathed a lightsaber, the light blinding and blue, and swung it at the right half of the boy’s face. The acrid smell of burning tissue that Hux though he’d long forgotten filled the room. The Knight sank to his knees.  
“Anakin Skywalker.” The boy’s head jerked upwards, eyes black against the angry red cut that now divided the right half of his face. “I have a job for you.”  
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
“Rey.” Kylo Ren looked over his shoulder and nudged the sleeping girl with his stun-cuffed hands, dropping his voice an octave lower. “Rey!”  
She rolled over, rubbing her eyes. “What, Kylo? I’m going to be no help at all if you don’t let me sleep.” She frowned.  
Kylo gave another anxious glance towards Finn, who had returned earlier only to doze off on the other side of Rey’s medbay bed. “We don’t have time for that anymore. You’ve got to get me out of these cuffs, and we’ve got to go.”  
Rey glared at him, sitting up. “Are you out of your kriffing mind? You heard Holdo—we’ll make it three meters down the bridge before someone lights both of us up. We don’t have weapons, we have nowhere to go, and Luke and Snoke are still out there, looking for us.”   
He tried, really tried, not to get angry. It was hard with this fear chomping at him. “That’s the problem. They’re coming now. They know where we’re at, and it won’t take them long to smoke everyone here out of these tunnels. We have to go now, before they get here!”  
“We have to help them.”  
That did it. Two of the lights above them blew out as his anger trembled in the Force. Finn stood with a yelp, training his blaster on Kylo’s chest. Rey snarled and slid off the bed to move in front of him. The bond tugged at his core. He wanted to hold her and hated that he couldn’t.   
“Come on, Finn, drop it. We’re just arguing.”  
“Rey, sorry if you get mad, but you didn’t see him do half of what I did. He’s not capable of arguing, only killing.”  
Kylo grew very still, easing into the traitor’s mind. “You don’t know what you think you know,” he said quietly. Rey glanced back at him, a question shooting down the bond.  
'Please don’t listen to him.'  
“He kills innocent people indiscriminately. I left the First Order because of the villagers he murdered on Jakku. He didn’t even look at them, didn’t stay to watch their execution after he ordered it.” Kylo breathed deeply, trying to appeal to Rey across their bond. 'Please don’t listen to him.'  
“He tortured people all the time, terribly.” Finn looked around Rey to glare at him in disgust. “We would pull prisoners out of those cells who had their minds completely ripped apart, that didn’t even know their own name by the time he was done with them. The screaming…” Finn squeezed his eyes shut. Rey’s horror washed over their connection.   
“Ask him about the Jedi temple. Ask him about the academy.” Rey’s hands curled into fists.  
“Have you never killed anyone, Finn?” Her voice was steady, but she would not look at Kylo.  
“Why do they call you the Jedi Killer, Ren? It makes it sound like you fought people who could defend themselves. But that’s not how it was, was it?” Finn was almost quaking now.  
“Please stop,” Kylo said quietly. He could see what was coming in the stupid boy’s head, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.  
“You killed children that night, didn’t you? I read the file. Some as young as five? Four? Did you look away when you killed them too?”  
“Last chance, stormtrooper. I’m not killing you because it would upset her, but this is your last chance.”  
“It’s not true,” Rey said. She turned around to search his face with watery eyes. “It’s not true, is it, Ben?” He dropped his chin to his chest, shame making him feel heavy. “You did.” She stepped away from him, repulsion echoing across the bond.   
“That’s nothing, though.” Finn lowered his blaster, moving to sit on Rey’s vacant bed. “Tell her the other thing, Ren.”  
“I’m begging you.” The words left his mouth before he could stop them. “Don’t.”  
“Pathetic. I understand now why she likes you. You lie to her. Unfortunately for you, women always figure out the truth. I think your father—remember the one you murdered? Told me that.”  
“What are you talking about Finn?” Rey rounded on Kylo, eyes flashing. “What is he talking about?”  
“Really?” Finn looked at Kylo in disbelief. “Fine. Shortly before I left, the First Order received a tip from an anonymous source that the thing they were looking for was on Jakku. I think they thought it was some stupid villager hoping to cash in on BB-8, but the woman didn’t sound stupid.” He shook his head. “Anyway, when I got to Canto Bright, I mentioned it in passing to General Organa after she told me about you. And she asked DJ if he could slice the records.”  
“Finn.” Kylo’s voice was quiet.  
“And they found you, Rey. It was about you. Whoever dumped you on Jakku, whoever left you, he knows and he’s lying about it. Why do you think he was so interested in you from the beginning?”  
Rey turned around and grabbed his face with both hands. “Kylo, do you know who I am?” He opened his mouth and drew a shuddering breath. She leaned closer, pulling on the bond. “Do. You. Know. Who. I. Am?”  
He was shaking his head when she slammed into his mental barriers, tearing his memories apart. Against his will, she pulled the name from his lips. “K—Keera.” He watched her sift through his memories of her from their childhood, playing in ships, sneaking Luke’s lightsaber outside to torment the local plant life, both being embraced by a red-haired woman—  
A single tear rolled down her cheek. “My mom?”  
“No, she…adopted you. We never knew where you came from.”  
Rey pressed her hand against her mouth and pulled out of his mind before dropping it to speak. “You knew and you didn’t tell me.”   
“You wouldn’t have listened to me if I had! I wasn’t even sure for a long time.” He could feel himself getting desperate as she distanced herself from the bond.  
“You didn’t tell me because you knew I’d want to stay with Luke to learn more. It’s always been about you getting what you want.” Kylo didn’t speak; she was right. Whether she heard it in his head or assumed, he couldn’t tell. “Get away from me, Kylo. Leave.” She looked at Finn, now exceptionally quiet. He grabbed Kylo’s arm.  
“Rey, please don’t do this. You need me. I need you!”  
The darkness he’d helped her let in on Ilum coated the bond. “I know. And I also know that’s why I have to find someone strong enough to break this bond.”  
“Rey!”  
“I waited forever to love someone like I loved you, Ben. And you took that from me—what is it you told me? The dark side doesn’t give without taking?”  
She turned away from him, refusing to look back as Finn muscled him out the door.


	38. Chapter 38

Rey waited until she could no longer hear Kylo and Finn as they struggled and moved down the hallway, each snarling vicious words at the other. Once she was quite sure that Finn had gotten Kylo into a holding cell without being injured (counting on the fact that Ren hadn’t slept and would be weak), she threw her mental shields up. What once had cost her great effort was now remarkably easy. Something had been taken from her in the night, but she’d gained something too. What that was, she didn’t have time to dwell on right now.  
She forced herself to move, to think, to choose. Her armguards were jammed up and over her elbows in an instant, and she fumbled for her hair ties, now irate with Kylo for undoing them. Finally, her fingers scrabbled over the tie on the floor and she quickly tied her hair back. In a closet near the back of the medbay, she found a red cape of some sort, which she wrapped and fastened around her shoulders. There was no way she could bear to put her own cloak back on, not when it still smelled like him, a combination of smoke and leather and spice that she’d unconsciously come to associate with home.  
Home. Where was she going exactly? Certainly not back to the First Order, where she doubted she’d ever had a friend and they were undoubtedly hunting them now. Here, with Finn and BB-8? Finn was broken by what she had allowed to happen to him on Star Killer, she knew. It flickered in his eyes every so often as he disconnected from reality. If she hadn’t been so determined to fight, they would have both been safe, long gone to the Outer Rim.  
'You still would have found me. Or I would have found you. '  
Kylo’s voice, faint and exhausted but undoubtedly there, punctured her thoughts.   
Rey scowled. 'Get out of my head, Ren. How did you get in?'  
'You let your shields drop when you get overly emotional.' There was a long pause. 'I’m sorry, Rey.'  
'I don’t want you here anymore, Ren. You had so much opportunity to tell me everything, and you didn’t.' She slid out the doors, peaked around the corner, and started walking.  
'Why does it matter?!'  
Why did it matter? So he’d known her when she was a girl. From her rough picking through his memories, she saw that she had been abandoned and adopted, in a way. Luke hadn’t told her either. And that was the problem. No one wanted only her; everyone wanted to test her power, control it, crush it, hide it. As much as Kylo argued otherwise, she had been a dangerous adversary first, lover second. All of it—Luke’s anger-tinged words of caution masked as parental concern, Kylo’s love—was just a way to keep her caged.  
'That’s not true.' Kylo’s rage seethed through the bond. At least, she thought it was his, with both of them so angry.   
'Is this what you want? I’ll never be rid of you. We’ll hear each other’s thoughts, see every image, feel everything. Do you want me in your ear every night like you are mine? Do you know how often you dream and show me, or talk in your sleep? I’ll always be there, Rey. This will kill me.'  
Despite everything, despite the darkness that threatened to consume her, his last four words stirred something in her chest. The bond physically hurt. Lighting on this weakness, Kylo pressed her.  
'Come get me out of here and I’ll tell you everything, Rey. About your family, what happened to me, all of it. I won’t lie to you again.'  
Again. She clung to that word with all her strength and managed to bring the shield back down. The resistance soldier sitting at the desk at the end of the hall glanced up at her, then did a double-take.  
“Are you supposed to be out here?”  
“Why not?” She was genuinely curious, leaning on the boy’s desk. His honey colored eyes flickered towards the medbay and back.  
“I thought you were watching…nevermind. Can I help you?”  
“Yes, you can. I need Kylo Ren’s lightsaber.” She tapped her fingers on the desk.  
The soldier snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”  
Rey considered him for a minute, thinking fondly of bopping him on his head. “You will give me Kylo Ren’s lightsaber and forget that I was here.”  
“Look, Jedi girl, there’s no way—“  
She was running out of time—with strength that she didn’t know she possessed, she hurtled into the soldier’s mind, freezing him in place. “I want…Kylo Ren’s…lightsaber. You will give it to me.”  
In his head, she could see the access code to the weapons locker behind him, and she pressed on until she found what she was looking for. “Aha. Thank you.” As gently as she could, she pulled the boy from consciousness and tucked him under the desk.  
It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for, and she made her way through the tunnels until she came to his holding cell, casually knocking the butt of her blaster into the back of the guard’s head. Unlike the times before when she used the dark side, she was becoming stronger, not weaker. Kylo’s head snapped up.  
“Rey!” He made half a step towards her before she thrust out her arm. He looked wounded as she held him in place, wariness taking over as he studied her expression. “Rey…” Kylo started again, his voice soothing and cautious.  
“I’m leaving now. And you’re not going to follow me. You’re going to leave here and get on a ship and go far away, Kylo Ren. I know you’re smart. Do what I’m telling you to do.”  
“You know I won’t do that, Rey. You’re coming with me.” His dark eyes bounced from the weapons on her hips to her face and back again. “Do you want to go back to Snoke? I’ll take you.”  
“No, I do not want to go back to your master.”  
“Then enlighten me as to where we are going, because if you leave me here, I will fight anyone who stops me from following you.” He jerked hard against her Force hold, and she curled her lip.  
“Don’t make me kill you, Ben.” She curled her fingers, fighting the torrent of emotion inside her. Kylo managed to jerk his hand free of her hold and clutched at his throat.  
“Rey!” He gasped with disbelief. The creature inside her roared with approval, egging her on. She saw Han’s stricken face as the lightsaber went through him, a much younger Kylo (who looked a little like Anakin in her imaginings) approaching a flock of children, Finn falling in the snow.   
Yes, Rey. Kill him, kill Luke. You could be the only one. The last Jedi. Kylo’s face was shifting in color, moving from red to purple. Vaguely, she felt his panic. The monster liked that too.  
“Rey, let him go.” Finn’s voice cut through the haze of power as he approached her slowly from behind. “Rey, kriffing hell, you’re going to kill him!”  
“That’s the idea.” She’d barely finished her sentence before Finn’s fist connected with her uninjured ribs. “Hey!” She turned on Finn and Force-threw him into the wall instinctively. He slid to the floor and didn’t move. Shock flooded her system. “Oh, no. Oh, no.”  
Kylo was on his hands and knees, spluttering where she’d dropped him. He flinched as she approached, trying to simultaneously stand and move away. “What is wrong with you? You could have killed him.”   
What was wrong with her? Some kind of horrible, instinctual fear had settled inside, feeding the monstrous part of herself.   
“This is…this is your fault.” She snarled at the end of the sentence.  
“No.” Kylo shook his head. “I may have introduced you to the dark, but you’ve done this all on your own. Look at what you did to your friend. Look at me.” His eyes softened just a bit. “Come here, let me help you. We’ll figure it out.”  
“Don’t touch me!”   
Finn sat up, watching them. “I hate to interrupt this, but we need to go now.”  
Kylo turned on him like he was a mildly annoying insect, still holding a hand protectively in front of him to fend off Rey. “Why?”  
An enormous explosion sounded from above, rocking the cell. Tiny bits of dust tumbled from the ceiling. “They’re coming through the tunnels.” Another explosion sent a second wave of debris to the floor.  
“Rey, my lightsaber.” Kylo held out his hand. “Rey?”  
She was breathing hard, looking back and forth between the two of them. In one smooth motion, she unclipped the saber hilt from her waist and threw it to the floor.   
“Don’t follow me.”  
She ran.  
**********************************************************************************  
She must have thrown herself into the ceiling ventilation system, Finn thought. That was the only explanation for how neither he nor Kylo Ren could see her at all by the time they’d moved into the corridor. They fought each other the entire way, throwing shoulders and elbows as they ran. Whole pieces of the ceiling were falling around them now.  
They reached a divide in the tunnels, where dozens of resistance troops and weird, crystalline foxes were running. Kylo looked intently at the right tunnel and moved a step away before Finn raised his blaster. Slowly, cautiously, Ren engaged his lightsaber, filling the small space with glowing light as the overhead generators blew. They regarded each other for only a minute.  
“Just find her,” Finn spat, holstering his blaster. Kylo Ren nodded once, then holstered his saber and ran, flat out, in the opposite direction. Although every cell in his body was screaming at the noise, the smell of smoke, and the sound of blaster fire, Finn forced himself through the next set of doors that he knew would bring him to the surface. He needed to find Rose, to make sure she was safe…  
“FN-2187.” The modulated, Basic accent was horribly familiar. “So good to have you back.”


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for this.

Contrary to both Kylo and Finn’s belief, Rey had not jumped into the ventilation system or made a break for it with the other resistance members. When she’d ran from the room, her eyes had caught the smallest shimmer of movement at the end of the hall. By the time she’d reached it, another fox puppy had squeezed its way down a small tunnel. She considered it for a minute, decided she’d been in tighter spots when scavenging, and burrowed into the hole.  
The tunnel leveled out surprisingly quickly, and soon she tumbled onto the salty surface of planet, in the company of four terrified wolfpups. Chaos reigned; an entire Star Destroyer was burning thirty yards from the building, and people were firing indiscriminately. Above them, a TIE Fighter or X-Wing occasionally pinwheeled from the sky, adding a completely new level of danger to the battlefield.   
Pumping her arms, she sprinted for a fallen AT-AT walker that looked as though it had been nothing more than scrap metal for quite some time. To her intense relief, the hatch opened without much prodding. She slid into the muffled dampness of the hull and buried her face in her hands. She left him. How could she leave him?  
“Rey?” She jumped an immediately grabbed for her lightsaber, grinding her teeth in frustration when she remembered it was long gone. A dim light filled the hull.  
“You!” She tried to stand and realized how tired she was. Tired of fighting, within and without. She sunk to the floor. “If you’re going to kill me, do it now.”  
“Funnily enough,” said Luke gruffly, “I was getting ready to make the same request.” The legendary Jedi was leaning heavily against the wall made up by the ship’s enormous hull, breathing deeply. “Although if we keep sitting here, maybe one of the incoming ships will take us out.”  
Rey laughed hysterically. “Yes, of course that’s how it ends. After all that waiting and hoping and staying alive, I’m going to die with the man who abandoned me.”  
Luke pushed himself into a sitting position. “So you do know.” He glanced around as though she might be hiding him under her cape. “Is that why Ben isn’t with you?”  
She hid her face in her knees. “He lied to me.”  
“Of course he did. What do you want from him Rey? You asked that he teach you, he taught you. You wanted to leave, and he let you go.” Luke leaned forward. “You craved the dark side, and you found it. Tell me, how does it feel?”  
“It feels…” She shuddered. “It feels like rage and pain and resentment. But there’s so much power, and wild joy, and freedom in it too.” Her shoulders fell. “I can’t control it.”  
Luke nodded. “No, you can’t. Not without him.”  
“What?”  
“Even when you were small, you had a calming effect on Ben. It was the strangest thing, Mara and I…” He closed his eyes like he was in pain. “We couldn’t figure it out. It was only when I took you away that I realized what I’d done. Apart, your Force signatures were ever changing, light one day, dark the next. Together, you were grey. Like mist in the morning.” Luke looked at her keenly. “It appears to have changed hands, now. The darkness is around you.”  
She didn’t deny it. “It has been for awhile.”  
“Not like this.” There was a pause as Rey turned this over in her mind. What was wrong with using the dark side, when it came to her so easily? Kylo had to work for it, Luke was afraid of it, and she had finally managed to wield it. You’re right, Rey. The voice was back, taunting her. Now use it!  
“Rey!” Luke’s voice cut through the echo just as the side of the walker was blasted open. He was glaring at her just as he had back on Ahch-To. “What are you doing?”  
“I…I don’t know.” She stood up, feeling for her blaster. “I’ve got to help them!”  
Luke was still studying her, but he jerked his head. “We’ve got to move.”  
********************************************************************************************************************************  
Captain Phasma was standing in front of Finn, flanked by several squadrons of stormtroopers. He was shaking, absolutely frozen as Phasma lazily unsheathed a riot weapon from her side. As the leader of the “older” troopers—meaning those that have graduated the intermediate academy—Phasma had made it a point to memorize all of her trooper’s identification numbers. Unlike the first academy instructor Cardinal, Phasma didn’t care to know the soldiers personally—for her this was all about control and weeding out the weak ones. Just like his buddy on Jakku.  
Just like Finn.  
“What’s the matter, FN-2187? Are you experiencing blaster malfunction again?” Around her, the stormtroopers laughed. Men and women he had spent his entire life with, reveling in his undoing. “No…just a coward, as you’ve always been.” Phasma approached a crumpled figure to their right. The girl raised her hand in front of her face, her dark hair matted with blood. Rose.  
“Don’t touch her.” His voice surprised him, a steady growl that masked his fear.  
Phasma turned away from Rose. “Oh, such a traitor! I was going to have my men execute you by firing squad, but if you’d prefer to add embarrassment to your betrayal and dishonor, I will oblige.”  
“There is no dishonor. There’s no honor in what you do here.” Finn pulled his own riot weapon, settling his blaster back in the holster.   
The captain laughed, maybe for the first time ever. “Not that the Order would want to count you among our ranks again, but you cannot deny that this is your family. And you betrayed it.” She swung almost playfully at Finn, and he jumped back. “You never were a fighter.”  
Finn thought of Rey and Poe and Rose, all lost on the battlefield. Darkness was falling around them in earnest, and the sky was light up with explosion of light. “Unfortunately for you, I finally have something to fight for.” He rushed his captain and swung. “Come on!”  
Their weapons met with a crack, nearly driving Finn’s shoulder out of its socket. Stars, she was strong, he’d forgotten. Phasma kicked him away from her, breaking the standoff and threw her cape from her shoulders. “You will die, like every last one of them.”  
The battle raged.  
*******************************************************************************************  
Kylo pushed recklessly across the battlefield, never once letting up his mental assault of the bond. Rey, Rey, Rey, Rey, Rey. Please answer me. He’d flipped his hood up, trying his best to appear anonymous, as there could be no doubt he was being hunted right now. Anyone who came too close fell by his blade, though he did try to make sure they weren’t resistance members. Rain was starting to fall on the planet, which was making everything all the worse as people and assault vehicles slid and crashed through the mud. Eventually he started Force-throwing people out of his path rather than take the time to discern sides. This was out of control.  
He’d made it as far as the fallen Star Destroyer when he finally heard her.  
'Kylo!'  
The Force pulled at him, and he turned his head in the direction of the summons. His blood ran cold. Snoke—the Supreme Leader—had actually entered the fray. His master was locked in a heated duel with none other than Luke Skywalker, their lightsabers sliding and shrieking as they crashed against each other. With a rush of pure loathing, he realized that Snoke was using his—Rey’s—Anakin’s saber, the blue clashing magnificently with Luke’s green. But that was not what scared him.  
Rey was surrounded on all sides, frozen in the center of four of his knights. They weren’t fighting, but there was no doubting she’d be handed directly over to Snoke when he finished Skywalker. He had to get to her but—  
“Lord Ren.” General Hux was standing to his side, pointing a blaster at his head. “What a relief to find you still alive. You must have known how I would grieve.”  
“Get that blaster out of my face, you kriffing idiot. As you might have noticed with your military prowess, there’s a battle I need to assist with.”  
Hux didn’t back down. “Hmm. It would appear that your assistance is no longer needed.” Kylo was just about to kill him—to hell with the light—when he spoke again. “A brother, Ren. I’m touched.”  
“What did you just say?” Hux’s stern face was cut with an evil grin that made his features less human. He mopped rain out of his eyes.  
“Anakin. Another Solo. You couldn’t imagine how worried he’s been. So worried, in fact, that he may be out here looking for you right now.”  
“You’re lying.” Kylo slid his eyes anxiously towards Rey again, who remained where she was.   
“Do you know where he is, Ren?” Hux gestured towards the group of knights, one of which, Kylo realized, was wearing his helmet. The general grinned at his expression. “Better go to him. It’s not looking good.” Without another word, Hux dropped his blaster and ran back into the chaos. Kylo turned and ran for the group. Get Rey. Get Anakin. Get out.  
Rey screamed, and it was the first time that Kylo had ever heard her scream with nothing but pure fear. One of the knights—  
It was raining so hard, he couldn’t see.  
\--was bearing down on her, raising a weapon over his head—  
He wasn’t going to get there fast enough.  
Kylo screamed at Anakin, at the boy still wearing his helmet.   
“Kill him!”  
Anakin’s head turned towards his shout and then, without pause, he drove a red lightsaber through the knights back. Rey screamed again, louder this time.   
“Kylo, no!”  
*****************************************************************************  
Five minutes before Kylo arrived, Rey and Luke had been accosted by Snoke. Luke, to his credit, had told her to run, to get away and immediately engaged Snoke. She’d made it all of five steps before the knights had encircled her, gleeful at finding her without a weapon. They were most angry she was alone. Qyn had sidled close to her.  
“Where is my brother?”  
“I don’t know.” She cast her eyes around desperately. “Qyn, please help me. I can get you to him, you can go with him and I—“  
“I don’t need your help.” His modulated voice was disdainful, almost sulky. “When I find him, he and I are going somewhere and you are going far away with Snoke. You’ve almost gotten him killed.”  
Rey looked away from him. “I didn’t mean to.” The boy scoffed and moved back into the semicircle. As they watched Snoke and Luke battle, she reached across the bond.   
'Kylo!'  
He was there in an instant, so close, but not close enough to help her. The bond pulled between them, and she felt safe, although she’d never been less safe in her life. When Anakin saw him coming, he was furious.  
“No, no. No! He wasn’t supposed to come back for you.” Growing more agitated by the minute, the boy had begun to pace. “He’s going to ruin everything!”  
“Be still,” hissed Talin Ren. Her voice was much deeper through the modulator.   
“That’s it,” Anakin said. “You can’t be here, scavenger. I hear it in your head. There can only be one, after all.” Qyn raised his weapon and moved towards her. Between the rain, the darkness, and the knight it was her vision come true, only this time there was no Kylo to save her. She screamed, and rolled away from the blow that was sure to come.  
“Kill him!” Kylo’s voice. She realized what was happening a split second too late, her words lost in the storm.  
“Kylo, no!”  
*****************************************************************************************************  
The knight’s body was still smoking from the saber wound when he reached her, falling to his knees beside both her and the body on the muddy ground.   
“Are you okay, are you alright?”  
“No, I mean yes, but…oh, Ben…” She shocked him by vomiting, completely ignoring the bedlam going on around them. Kylo turned to the boy wearing his helmet.  
“Anakin, I need you to help me. Can you convince the others to retreat long enough for us to get out of here?” There was no response from behind the mask. “Qyn??”  
“No, I don’t think I can.” The knight removed Kylo Ren’s helmet from his—no her—head. “Firstly because I’m not Anakin.”  
It didn’t make sense. Hux had pointed him out, tipped him off. “Talin? Then where is…” Kylo’s eyes darted to the still-warm body of the knight on the ground. “No.” He shook his head. “Rey? That’s not…it’s not—“ His voice broke.  
Rey raised her tear stained face and pressed her palm against the dead knight’s mask. It melted away into a square in her hand. Anakin was pale in death, his unruly hair still matted with sweat from the battle, his dark eyelashes slightly parted in a blank stare. Someone had burned him with a lightsaber—the thin scar extended under his eye. Kylo shook his head more aggressively. “No.”  
“You did ask me to kill him,” Talin said, smiling with her sharp teeth. “Couldn’t lose your Rey, could you?”  
Kylo didn’t need to call on the darkness—this time it answered to him, filling his veins. He ripped into Talin’s mind like it was nothing, painfully tearing apart her memories. Trembling with rage, he finally managed to speak.   
“You set me up.”  
“And you betrayed us.” Despite the pain, Talin managed to light the corners of her mouth. “You failed two masters, Ben Solo. Your chances are up. I’m just glad I had a chance to show you for what you are. Weak.” Blood burst from her mouth as Kylo crushed her with the Force, fueled by anger. She was still smiling when she died.


	40. Chapter 40

“Kylo. Kylo, look at me. Stay with me.” Rey pulled hard on the bond, enough to make it uncomfortable. “Kylo!” He remained in a crouch at her side, breathing hard, even as Luke cursed in the distance. After Talin’s gruesome death at the hands of their old master, all the knights had disappeared. Rey touched his face, trying to find something, anything good to give him. She thought of earlier in the night, and that brief place of happiness. To her relief, Kylo shuddered and looked up at her blindly.  
“He’s dead. I did everything I could and he’s dead. It’s just like I told you—I can’t save anyone.”  
“We can’t save everyone,” she amended. “But please, Kylo, I need your help. We need to get out of here.”  
“Go, Rey. I’ll do everything I can to give you a chance, I’ll have him break the bond. Just go.”  
“I won’t.” The monster inside gnashed its teeth. Why couldn’t he just make this easy?  
“Rey!” Finn was hurtling towards them, bloody but otherwise whole. He scooped her off the ground into a hug. “Listen, we’ve got the Falcon, Chewie’s ready. We just need to get out of here. Everyone else is evacuating.” He glanced at Kylo, who was still kneeling on the ground. “Is he hurt?”  
“No.” She knelt down and slid her fingers into his damp hair. “Kylo? Ben? Can you do something for me?” There was no time to wait for an answer. “Get on the ship. I’ll be right behind you.”  
Finn fired at an unseen attacker and then turned back to Rey. “His mother is on there. She’s hurt.”  
This punctured whatever headspace Kylo was hiding in. “Hurt?”  
“Coma. She needs you.” Finn was panting. “Rey, we really need to go.”  
She used the Force to haul Kylo to his feet and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Go, Kylo. I’ll be right behind you. Help Finn get there.” He staggered a bit when she shoved him, but followed Finn after stopping one more time.  
“I love you.”  
Rey gulped, knowing that she had hurt him enough for a lifetime. “I know.  
****************************************************************************************************************************************  
Snoke noticed her first, his sunken eyes alight with the excitement of battle. “Ah, Rey. You’ve come back.” He danced away from Luke with surprising agility.   
“Rey?” Luke’s shock was plain. “Get out of here!”  
“But she doesn’t want to—do you, girl?” Snoke sheathed his lightsaber and approached her. She stood her ground. “Ah…you want to know about your family.”  
“Kylo told me once that you could see things others couldn’t. I want to know what you see when you look at me. When you look at me without—“  
“Without Kylo Ren, hmm.” Snoke circled her slowly, eyes lidded heavily. “Power, so much raw power. Fear. Something…more.” He stopped, letting the rain rush over them.  
“Your family…smart people of the Order. They didn’t know who they were, of course.”  
Rey knit her eyebrows together. She had come from this…belief system? Snoke’s voice cut through her own doubt. “Oh, interesting, Skywalker!” Luke was walking slowly towards her. “You had something to do with their deaths?”  
Luke ignored him. “Go back to Ben, Rey. They’re all waiting for you.”  
“You don’t have to go anywhere, Rey. Come with me, and I’ll show you all that you ask.”  
She grabbed Luke’s arm. “What did he mean, you had something to do with it?” Instead of outright denying the claim, his eyes shifted away, becoming increasingly cloudy.  
“I don’t know. We never knew your parents!”  
“He’s lying,” Snoke said. Rey didn’t need the confirmation—she already knew it. Angrily, she reached out and ripped the kyber crystal from Luke’s neck.  
“Is this what you’re hiding?” She snarled, looking at the tiny thing. Snoke froze, watching her intently. “This is what you’ve all been looking for?” The crystal was warm as she tied it around her neck. The sound of rushing blood filled her ears. “Oh!”  
Snoke was smiling again. “It feels good, doesn’t it? Come, Rey. I’ll show you how to use it.” She took a step in Snoke’s direction. A command shuttle landed and flashed in the distance, slowly lowering its pointed black wings. She walked forward again.   
“Rey!” Luke was stunned. “Rey, come back!”  
She bit back tears. “I can’t.”  
Finn accosted Luke as soon as he clambered into the Falcon. “Where’s Rey?” He peered into the pounding rain, watching a command shuttle lift off. “Skywalker?!”  
Luke felt like he could die. He wished he had. “Just go. She’s gone.”  
“Gone? What do you mean gone?” His voice was growing louder, more hysterical, and he couldn’t calm down.   
“She left. Now fly if you want to save anyone else on this ship.” Luke stumbled away and put his face in his hands.  
“Excuse me, sir.” Threepio’s tremulous voice cut through Poe’s preparations. “It’s Admiral Holdo. She’s dead.”  
Dreadful shock filled the room. “Dead,” croaked Finn. “Gone. Everyone.” Everyone was gone.  
“Not everyone.” Rose nodded her head towards the back of the ship. Kylo Ren knelt beside General Organa’s cot, resting his soaked head on their linked hands. The frightening man was murmuring something to her, but none of them could pick it up. Every so often, his shoulders would shake. Finn watched him for a minute and then bowed his head.  
“Tell Poe that Skywalker said to move.”


	41. Chapter 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm sorry again.

“Rey,” Kylo’s voice whispered. “What are you doing? Come back to me.” She could feel the weight of him on top of her, feel his breath on her ear. A lock of his hair brushed her cheek. “Come home.”  
She sat straight up in bed, her chest rising and falling rapidly. It had been weeks since the battle on Crait, and these visions were only getting worse. “Stop it, Kylo,” she said aloud, lowering her shields ever so slightly. His grief trickled across the bond, filling her up and making her sick. She quickly shut him out; she had plenty of sadness without his.  
Her new bed on the Supremacy was huge and cold. Giving up on sleep completely—it was just too easy for him to get to her then—she threw back the covers and crossed her legs. Reaching out, she clutched the kyber crystal that hung around her neck. Something shadowy swept through the room.  
“Darth Sidious.”  
“Hello, young one.”  
“I’m struggling again.” Her lips barely moved. Sidious had never fully manifested before her, and it lead her to suspect that, for whatever reason, he did not have the ability. Snoke had sniffed that Darth Sidious only retained the ways of the Sith, shorting himself of the Jedi skill of becoming a fully-fledged Force Ghost. Pathetic, in his opinion.   
“Yes, with the Skywalker boy. You have decided against breaking the bond? Surely your master is strong enough.”  
“I have decided against it.”  
“Because of the—“  
“You know why.” She shuddered with the anger that constantly simmered beneath her skin. “I need your strength.”  
“You shall have all that and more. You will succeed where I have failed.”  
The crystal burned her skin. “As you wish, grandfather.”  
*********************************************************************************************************************  
Kylo threw his lightsaber at his uncle’s feet. “I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s not even my weapon.” He kicked the thing for good measure, venting his temper. Canto Bright was housing them again, grateful to them for returning Holdo’s body. Of course, only a select few knew the true identities of the two men now sparring on a rooftop platform.  
His uncle bent and picked up the lightsaber, engaging it. A long, white blade extended from the hilt, the two crossguard beams following shortly after. “But it is your weapon. You purified it.”  
“I didn’t mean to.”  
“Yes you did. There’s no shame in it, Ben.” Luke sheathed his own saber and jerked his head so that Kylo would follow him. “A great shock, an emotional upheaval—weapons change. Your first one was orange.”  
“White would signify that I don’t align with either side.” That I’m weak, he thought privately.   
“And you don’t. Because you don’t want to. Because that would mean maybe taking a side against Re—“  
“Don’t say her name!” There was the temper, like it had never left. He bit his cheek, tearing at the already ragged skin.  
“If you think that no one has noticed you talking in your sleep to her, think again. She’s not coming back.”  
Kylo flinched as though Luke had hit him. “I know.”  
“Do you want me to try to break the bond?”  
“No.” He glanced over the edge of the building and shook his head. “No.”  
“It might make it easier on you,” Luke prodded gently.   
“I don’t want to risk her life.” Kylo stomped back inside and Luke watched him go unhappily. He wished Leia would wake up. They needed her.


	42. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap on this one! Seven days until I see The Last Jedi. There are so many spoilers out there right now that I recommend treading carefully. If any appear in this story, I promise that everything was written or planned prior-to. I've left the ending wide open on this one (mostly because I can't bear to leave it as it is) so if you guys want a sequel, I will write it. However, I need to give my reylo heart a little time to prepare for TLJ, so I will see you all in a week. For once, I've got a GOOD feeling about this.  
> May the Force be with you. :)

Rey joined Snoke and General Hux on the bridge, training her gaze on the viewport. The armada that surrounded them was being tended by droids, making quick work of the repairs and additions to the ships that they would need for their next attack. Hux nodded curtly at her and then turned to Snoke, murmuring something about setting the course. Snoke nodded absentmindedly, and the general left them alone on the platform. It had been months since their last major battle. The resistance appeared to have been decimated by the loss of their leaders, and DJ had fed them an incredible amount of information after deciding to stay aboard.  
“It appears that we have some time on our hands, my apprentice.”  
“So it would seem.” Rey adjusted the belt she wore high around her waist, pulling it up a few inches so her robes flowed loosely beneath it.  
“I have something I need you to do for me, if I might ask.”  
She kept her voice carefully uninterested. “Tell me.”  
“Are you familiar with the planet of Mustafar?”  
“The volcanic world?”  
“The very same. I need you to visit a certain castle for me.” He glanced down at her. “Does Kylo Ren know?”  
She folded her hands over her slightly rounded stomach. “No. And I’d like to keep it that way.”  
“As you wish.” Snoke paused again. “The child is strong with the Force.”  
Rey nodded. “She is.”


End file.
